Business plan and financial feasibility analysis of this scenic residential resort community located on Catalina Island, just 26 miles off the coast of Southern California.

Hamilton Cove is situated in a private cove next to the town of Avalon, the main community of Catalina Island. Many of the secluded villas of Hamilton Cove are offered for rent for weekend, weekly, and seasonal occupancy.

Catalina Island history goes back well before recorded times, but we know that the Pimungans of Santa Catalina Island first met European travelers in 1542 - when the native peoples paddled out to greet Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and his galleon - just 50 years after Columbus first entered the Western Hemisphere. The island was claimed by Spain.

By 1805 though, Russian, American, and Aleut otter hunters began appearing in Island waters in defiance of the Spanish government. The Spaniards did not have enough ships to patrol their territory, so the hunters were able to camp undetected and hunt. When New Spain revolted from its mother country and became Mexico in 1820, California became a province in the new country.

Santa Catalina Island was awarded by Mexican Governor Pio Pico to Thomas Robbins as a land grant in 1846, just four days before the United States invaded California. Robbins was a naturalized Mexican citizen who had been living in California for about 20 years and had performed various services for the government, mainly as a ship captain. Paying for services with land was customary, but ownership was provisional. To maintain his title, the grantee had to use the land. Robbins established a small rancho on the Island, but sold it in 1850 to Jose Maria Covarrubias, just two years after California became a part of the United States as the result of the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo.

Client: Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) Development.