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PGA Catalunya Golf & Wellness
76 Plays4 years ago
GUEST / DAVID PLANA, CEO, PGA CATALUNYA
HOST / MATT MORLEY
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Transcript
Introduction to Episode 27
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome to episode 27 of the Green and Healthy Places podcast, in which we explore the themes of sustainability and wellness in real estate and hospitality today. I'm your host, Matt Aspiotis-Mauley, founder of Biofilico Healthy Buildings and Biofit Nature Gyms.
Meet David Plana
00:00:29
Speaker
In this episode, we're near Girona in Spain, talking to David Plana, CEO of PGA Catalunya Golf and Wellness Resort.
00:00:38
Speaker
Born locally and with 17 years of international experience behind him, David has been with the company since 2008. We cover the gastronomic explosion around Girona over the last 20 years, the launch of their new Wellness Centre and how they position that somewhere between a traditional spa and a more high-end tech-driven clinic.
Launch of Wellness Center
00:01:02
Speaker
How they took inspiration from the healthy building movement and applied those concepts to what will become the very first well villa residential project on their site that is in turn having an influence on other and future residential development strategies.
00:01:20
Speaker
We also look at the results overall sustainability plan and the first carbon neutral villa that one client is developing as well as their more site-wide energy and water consumption reduction strategies for the next five to 10 years.
00:01:37
Speaker
My audio is not great in this recording. Apologies for that. I was away from my studio on this particular day. Other than that, please do send comments and suggestions to me at mattmorley.net.
Sustainability and Wellness Focus
00:01:49
Speaker
Hit subscribe if you like this kind of content and of course check out the show links for all the relevant websites and social media handles. Nada mas. Let's talk to David Plannop, CEO of PGA Catalunya Golf and Wellness in Spain.
00:02:05
Speaker
David, thank you so much for joining us. It's great to have you here. I'm excited to talk about all things PGA, Catalonia, and particularly around its screen and wellness angles, because I know that's currently a topic that you've been pushing strongly over the last year, and I think it's such an interesting time to be working in this space. I wanted to start, though, just to understand a little of your
00:02:30
Speaker
personal background.
Location Advantages of Girona
00:02:31
Speaker
I know the region of Girona is both your home and the way you work. So how do you see the location as it relates to the project that you are leading? First of all, thank you Matt for inviting us. It's funny enough because I'm local, but Matt I spend a lot of time away from my area. And I think that one of the keys
00:02:58
Speaker
I mean, one of the keys is I realize, you know, um, the area or the location. What's great when, when spending years abroad. So I spent first, um, in Barcelona, many years in Barcelona, then I was expat. I was in Mexico, Paris, um, and then, uh, Holland, and then back here. So after 17 years, I came home.
00:03:29
Speaker
And I said, I understand why people come here. Okay. I understand why. So the area you, you mentioned it. Um, I think that, um, one of the advantages of PGA it's, it's the location clearly. When, when, uh, when you see PGA, uh, you cannot just see, you know, the, you know, the resort, uh, if the resort is surrounded by, you know, Costa Brava, we are not in Costa Brava, but we are.
00:03:59
Speaker
25 minutes away from Costa Brava. It's not a new resort anymore. In terms of it's about 20 years. But when they see the trees, the nature, it's authentic. It's not in the middle of the desert where you have palm trees and you plant a few trees here and there. So it's not about that. It's authentic landscape. And we try to protect that. And the other thing is, I would say that
00:04:29
Speaker
Again, now we can beat the area culturally, you know, we have the Lee, we have several, several, um, I would say assets in terms of, and, um, in terms of, um, you know, nature as well, you have protected areas like metas, like cadaqués, like the natural part of monsoon, which is again, 25 minutes away from here. And another one, which is very important as well, it's, um, it's an astronomy.
00:04:58
Speaker
I think that in terms of astronomy, Girona, what you see in the press is basically the oldest star, Michelin, Ferran Adria, start all that. Rocca brothers are following that. Here in Girona, you have many, many. It's like a constellation. But for me, what's interesting enough is that below this level, or you have a lot, a lot of chefs that
00:05:29
Speaker
who have been working actually with this, I would say, monsters of the gastronomy that care about food. It could give you like 10 restaurants in Girona, no Michelin star, stars but fantastic. They really care about food. So I think that, again, if you put all that together,
00:05:56
Speaker
the surrounding area of PCA. It's a very nice area.
PGA as a Year-Round Community
00:06:02
Speaker
And for a resort, I have to tell you that this is a real advantage because many resorts are far away from everywhere. And actually, it all happens when you are inside the resort. But outside, it's
00:06:25
Speaker
can be pretty poor, you know, for me, life style, you know, living in VGA, of course, you have these fantastic golf courses. But at the same time, you wake up in the morning, and you can be, you know, in one of the beaches in the Costa Brava. Actually, you, the afternoon, you can take the train down the road here in less than one hour you are in Barcelona. So you don't have many places where you can do that, you know, in a single day, you can visit, you know,
00:06:55
Speaker
a big city like Barcelona to be the middle of the forest. So it's, I say that, you know, it's a great advantage. And sometimes we have residents that they come here. I propose sometimes, okay, wait, you know, instead of coming straight to PGA, most of them, they know Barcelona. They stay one day, one night in Girona, stay one night in Costa
00:07:22
Speaker
And then you will understand where we are in terms of location. So I think it's been interesting to hear how you think about it. And yeah, clearly these are the big themes. And one of the main reasons that I've ended up living in Barcelona, I think the region of Catalonia just has such a rich
00:07:41
Speaker
cultural offering to give. Essentially, you're part of that. You're connected to that. You've used both the term resort and described people living there or spending time there. Is it a residential resort where people are living or is it more of a resort where people are spending some time, some of the year as a secondary residence? Are you a year-round community or is it more of a
00:08:06
Speaker
seasonal space that comes alive at certain times of year or certain periods and then quietens
Adjustments Due to COVID-19
00:08:12
Speaker
down. What's the current situation of the 20 years? Actually Matt, it's an interesting question. I'm gonna answer this but I think that all this is changing. So whatever I say, I think this is changing anyway. Before COVID and after COVID, right?
00:08:31
Speaker
Yes, I think that, again, COVID will past, but something will last. Something will last. What I've seen, again, we have more than 20 years of history in terms of golf, but in terms of real estate, it's only 10 years, okay? We've done a lot in 10 years, to be honest, but only 10 years. So what we have seen here initially
00:09:01
Speaker
You know, we were attracting people and families who wanted to come. Typically the second residence, but more and more thinking about staying longer periods of time. So it's not anymore about, you know, spending one month here. We have seen, you know, people coming from the banks or people, you know, professionals, they spend two, three, four months here.
00:09:31
Speaker
You know, they stay one month here, they go back. So that was before COVID. So that was before COVID. Already they were coming. The other trend I saw, it's not, I think when you do an investment such, you know, in PGA, you know, the level, you should be thinking about 1 million plus. When you think about that,
00:10:00
Speaker
A lot of people, they don't think anymore about one generation. It's the family investment. So you see that the parents are coming and then the sons or the daughters are coming. So the use, it's family use. Have you had to adapt your service and product offer based on the events of the last 12
Innovative Wellness Strategies
00:10:24
Speaker
months? Have you had to
00:10:25
Speaker
obviously beyond the standard things around hygiene and have you had to create new services for your, if you like, the residential community there? Like, what would those be? Yeah, actually what happened is that many residents decided, you know, to pass the lockdown here. So, and then the rentals, the long-term rentals were not
00:10:53
Speaker
to the roof, so a lot of people, you know, they wanted to rent here. So, I mean, we have a small supermarket, we call pure market. So we really had to adapt that. So the hotel was closed initially. And what we did is that we used the suppliers of the hotel to supply fresh meat, fresh fish, you know, super good quality. So to all the homes, that's one of the things that we did.
00:11:24
Speaker
Yes, in terms of, you know, other adaptations, we have a resident service. So it's a service to all the residents. They really use, you know, during this pandemic for many, many things, you know, COVID tests, help when they have to come here, you know, providing all the papers, all the documentation. So, yes, we adapted.
00:11:51
Speaker
Because you had the, obviously, to launch the new wellness center, that's obviously something you've been working on for a few years, so in a sense that it just came at the perfect time. Let's talk about that, what went into the wellness center, because it's a big project and there's obviously, you know, there's some really interesting concepts and
00:12:14
Speaker
In the reading I've done, there's a lot of quite new and innovative ideas coming through there. So what was the process? Who was involved? And where did the impetus, what prompted you to do that this time? We saw the trends of the market. We saw the typical spots. On the other side, you have the clinics. And we saw a little bit a gap in between.
00:12:45
Speaker
And we saw that in some places you can have the traditional treatments, but you don't have the technology to go deeper. It's not just the skin and the relaxation and the luxuries. And on the other side, you have the pure clinics and long-term treatment. So we saw the opportunity of this type of wellness. So of course, you know,
00:13:14
Speaker
starting with traditional treatments and add technology. And we start with a Creotherapy. We saw also the type of customers that we could attract, sports, clearly golfers, and we expand that. So we started, you know, back home, oxygen chamber, IB infusions,
00:13:45
Speaker
And we start to develop a concept where I would say that the traditional goes beyond that and we add technology so we can somehow go from the skin to the cells.
00:14:02
Speaker
It's just that interesting contrast and the yin and the yang combination, right? We started talking about organic ingredients and how reconnecting with the land in the region is one part of wellness. And on the other side, you have really the latest technologies around treatments and how you can combine those two worlds. I think that's very reflective of wellness today, in fact, having those
00:14:30
Speaker
those two extremes working together to create a slightly different experience. And I know you've also, you've taken it beyond the limits of the wellness center and have been exploring the residential wellness as well with what you called the well
The Well Villa Concept
00:14:45
Speaker
villa. So what was the strategy there? How involved were you? Was it more, was that something that you developed and then looked to find a buyer or was it a buyer who wanted to engage more on the wellness side? How did you structure that?
00:15:00
Speaker
already, as I said, a long time ago, exploring the wellness. And here, it was a combination of, I would say, three parts. One part was an architect, Franz Silvestre. The other one was a company called Ebalore. And the other part was PGA. And who was leading this project in PGA was
00:15:30
Speaker
is Victor, Victor Batke in charge of operations. So basically, you know, in the industry, you see how, you know, commercial and other types of residential, well, not residential, have developed, you know, systems to improve the quality of the air
00:15:58
Speaker
of the light even in some of the other areas, not just architecture. So we did actually the first meeting I remember and they came up with about 200 bullet points of things that could be applied in order to improve. And so we integrated that into
00:16:28
Speaker
into a home. So the process was really, you know, we feel that we were, at least in Spain, we were the first one to do the exercise. And again, you have some pillars, you have air, you have water. Okay. What about the ventilation? Okay. What about the filters? The water?
00:16:54
Speaker
The same thing, what is the best thing? Reverse osmosis. So we start with that. And to put all the things again, the light, you know, and concepts like, okay, for any human being, you know, 200 years ago, or 300, you know, they didn't have the light on off. So the impact of that, it's massive. Okay, let's go back.
00:17:24
Speaker
And let's do that. Let's bring the light the morning. I mean, when you wake up in a different way, so you don't have this impact. And it's quite unique because we see, you know, typically those, that type of healthy building strategy, you know, it's often applied to far bigger scale to, to large office buildings or large residential buildings. You know, you see the examples from China, the U S with 20, 50 stories.
00:17:52
Speaker
And then there's a small piece I think that's happening around in the sort of high end luxury residential market where there's obviously interest and demand now for
00:18:04
Speaker
for just adding that extra element of health and wellness as an upgrade to the residential experience. So from your perspective, how do you imagine evaluating beyond selling the villa? How would you decide whether that might be something that could be replicated again in other villas? Is it a one-off and it was just an experiment or have you had enough feedback to suggest that perhaps some of those concepts at least could be applied in other projects in the future?
Future Integration of Wellness Elements
00:18:37
Speaker
Clearly, we start this project again. It was the first project. We are starting construction very soon. But I think that some of the elements, and again, as you said, this typically has been done at a larger scale, not only in construction. And it's true that you cannot bring everything into one villa.
00:19:06
Speaker
But some of the things will stay. If you have, for instance, the air, so carbon filters, nobody's using carbon filters. Yes, it's an extra cost, but I don't see the benefits of the carbon filters, pollution. In our case, we are in a natural environment. But I think that
00:19:36
Speaker
the wall, it's going into a, they want this type of developments and some of that will be in all the standard villas. I see that, you know, actually we are launching new apartments and some of the elements of the wellness villa are there as well. You could think about, remember at the beginning when
00:20:06
Speaker
Solar panels were something, you know, again, you could see that in one or two pillars, it was expensive. Now it's a commodity, you see it everywhere. So I think that this will remain, and this will, you know, again, for instance, the light as well, it's not really expensive, you know, to do some of these changes.
00:20:34
Speaker
Paintings is another example to use paintings that really with the heat they don't evaporate anything. So that's something that will stay as well. So clearly, yes, not maybe named as well as Villa or well as apartments, but clearly some of the elements will be a commodity in the future.
Sustainability Efforts at PGA
00:21:01
Speaker
Not only for us,
00:21:03
Speaker
I think that other people will incorporate that. It's kind of a classic example of how, in a way, as CEO being exposed to these new ideas and these new wellness design strategies now, okay, maybe you don't then implement them with everything in future, but you've been exposed to them and in a sense, wow, okay, now you know, you have that knowledge, you're able to apply or work with some parts of it on other projects in future. So I think that's, it's a,
00:21:30
Speaker
And a great example of how even just doing one.
00:21:34
Speaker
project with the certification and all of the possible opportunities. And then after that, you can work with it how you prefer in future. You mentioned the solar panels. I just wondered on the sustainability piece as well, because obviously we often think about the green and the healthy. They come together. So at the moment, what is your sustainability plan or your sustainability strategy for the resort look like? Has it changed over the last year? Are you having to do more now post COVID?
00:22:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think that probably this has nothing to do with COVID, the sustainability. Of course, we were already in terms of residential using solar panels. But again, what is coming in sustainability, I see it again, it's going to be a big change. For instance, we are building now
00:22:34
Speaker
the first villa and it's a project of a private project where it's gonna be carbon neutral. So already at this level. So Tesla batteries, boreholes, solar panels. So it's gonna be self-sufficient in terms of energy. Clearly we have been long time working for the golf courses
00:23:05
Speaker
As you know, in Spain, well, at least in this area, our golf course, we use purified water. So water already coming from a treatment plant and we give this water a second use. So clearly in terms of water, we don't consume any water from boreholes. So that's something that we have done. And on top of that, we have changed the design of the stadium.
00:23:33
Speaker
So we use 25% less water even. And in terms of chemicals, so that's one thing of the sustainability that it's going to stay for sure here. The other one is that in terms of energy, we launch a big project. We are thinking what's going to happen in the next five to 10 years. We have more land to develop. We have big projects like
00:24:02
Speaker
lake, we'll go through that. And we see that sustainability, creating our own energy, we're analyzing that. I think that it's a must. So in a way, we're in a transition from the sustainability being an extra or a small piece of the market to something that's more widely appreciated. That doesn't mean that you're attracting
00:24:29
Speaker
you know, like the eco warrior client, the client who's obsessed with eco friendliness, they're, if you like, as more regular client, but who appreciates and understands the value in, in the work you're doing to add sustainability into the service office. So it's, it's not the raison d'être, it's not the main advantage, but it is something that's now integrated into what you do. And therefore, it's becoming part of
00:24:57
Speaker
of the brand, which I think shows a maturity in sustainability.
Future Projects and Gratitude
00:25:02
Speaker
It's the next phase in how sustainability becomes sewn into the fabric of a development, whereas before maybe it was quite like a small piece on the outside, like an extreme part. And now it sounds to me like you're incorporating it into your strategy, into your corporate strategy. So looking ahead for the next 12 months, what big projects do you have coming
00:25:26
Speaker
We are expanding the resort with a lake. We have planted six hectares of vineyards. So we have our own vineyards, ecological vineyards. And we have our own wine. And this is surrounding the lake. And the direction, of course, it's a natural lake.
00:25:53
Speaker
But we do it that we don't have, we have natural filtration. So with plants. So basically, and really it took us a long time for this technology. And what we see, it's a place, as you know, summer here, the coast is really crowded. We want to do a lake and a lake club where you can relax, enjoy,
00:26:23
Speaker
in a different type of environment. It's not Costa Brava, no, it's true. But the coast, as you know, we have a little bit of massification. So we want to create a different type of environment. And the lake is the keystone in all that.
00:26:46
Speaker
Very interesting. Well, I'm going to be conscious of your time. It's been fascinating to hear about everything you're doing. And yeah, I really look forward to seeing the new developments and of course the WellVilla and hopefully visit the Wellness Center. We'll put the links for all of the websites and your social media in the show notes. Davitana, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you, Matt. You are welcome, always welcome. It's less than a hour away from your place. So you don't have any excuse.
00:27:17
Speaker
Thank you, Matt. Thank you. Bye bye.