When Puerto Calero was conceived, on the coast of the Lanzarote municipality of Yaiza, the market study on potential users on the Island was reduced to 12 boats, which were distributed between the docks of Arrecife and La Tiñosa.
Four decades later, the Puerto Calero group manages more than 1,000 moorings in three marinas in Lanzarote and La Palma, to which another 310 moorings will be added in the fall of 2024, when Marina Jandía is scheduled to open, which is destined to become a "jewel" for recreational boating in the Canary Islands.
As the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Puerto Calero company is celebrated this September, José Calero's dream has materialized into an international reference for nautical tourism on the rise, with more than 3,000 boats received in the last year, a staff of 65 people and the first shipyard for superyachts in the Archipelago.
The seed from which Puerto Calero germinated is linked to the life trajectory of José Calero Rodríguez. Born in La Asomada (Tías) in August 1945, the fifth of eight siblings, in April 1962, with just 16 years old and a restless character, José Calero convinces his father to allow him to process his passport and takes a plane to Monrovia, capital of Liberia. At that time, the African country had already awakened the commercial interest of the United States. He carried a suitcase more loaded with illusion than with certainties about what that adventure would bring him. He worked first in construction and after many experiences and vicissitudes he met Daniel Tolbert, brother of the then president of Liberia, and both, as partners, focus on the important port of Monrovia. From carrying out imports and storage, he manages to become a stevedore and consignee of the American company Firestone, which obtains rubber in the African country.
On a trip to the United States, José Calero is impressed by a marina on the coast of Baltimore. "I was so dazzled that the possibility of doing something similar in my land seemed like a dream," he recalls. Before, in July 1976 he married Milagros Prats, whom he had met on December 31, 1974, at a dinner at the Hotel Fariones. In 1977 his first son, José Juan, was born, and Daniel came into the world in 1980. In April of that year, a coup d'état in Liberia forced the family to rethink their future. It is from then on that Puerto Calero begins to take shape: first with the creation of the company and the design of the project and, since 1985, when it receives the concession from the Council of Ministers, with the execution of the works. "The objective," highlights José Juan Calero Prats, CEO of Calero Marinas, "was to develop a quality tourist and residential destination in Lanzarote, that is what has always guided us."
Family business
In Puerto Calero, which the Lanzarote entrepreneur recognizes was "a personal audacity, when nobody thought it could be done", he used his savings and worked intensely to make it a reality. The risk gave way to "the faith in creating something that did not exist here" and the conviction that first-class equipment was needed in the Islands, "not only related to nautical tourism, but also quality tourist-residential developments that would attract a high added value tourist profile", highlights Daniel Calero, CEO of the Real Estate Area, which manages the development of the family group's tourist and residential activity.
The company has always been committed to maintaining the philosophy of combining the best stay for users, "so that they feel at home", with quality port services, and a first-class tourist, gastronomic, cultural and leisure offer, with sustainability and integration into the environment as its banner.
However, the 40-year history of the Puerto Calero company has not been an easy road: the first boat docks in 1989 and two years later the global crisis breaks out due to the Persian Gulf War. In its beginnings, the marina had 198 berths for boats between eight and 20 meters. In the 90s, in a complex economic context, it was decided to expand the port to make it more attractive and provide services to large yachts, an evolution that would culminate in the following decade with a dock for mooring superyachts. Another difficult moment occurred after the commissioning of Marina Lanzarote, a project that involved an investment of 32 million euros that recovered a degraded area in Puerto Naos in 2014 and opened Arrecife to the sea. Marina Lanzarote was the group's third sports dock, after the inauguration of Marina La Palma in 2010.
Two sculptures in Marina Lanzarote, by the artist Paco Curbelo, symbolize humility and gratitude. As if they were the coordinates of a compass that, as José Calero points out, mark the course that he has tried to follow in life and in the company, whose reins he now shares with his children José Juan and Daniel, with the memory of Milagros Prats, who died in 2019, always present. "As a company we have experienced learning throughout these decades and we have been involved in projects that excite us, that make us feel proud and that have also united wills to generate well-being in the social environment", concludes the CEO of Calero Marinas.