Lifestyles Profiles
Luis Wulff
By Josef Kandoll.


Every community has its dynasty, a family that plays a major role in the development of the community and whose members are involved in the many social and public aspects of the town. In Puerto Vallarta, one of these families would certainly be the Wulffs, whose legacy began with the arrival of Guillermo, his wife Nellie (today Nellie Barquet) and their four children back in the early ‘60s.

Their youngest child, Luis, who was just six at that time, recently celebrated his fiftieth birthday at his El Dorado restaurant on Los Muertos Beach, with many friends and family members attending. Looking back over his life, a pattern can be traced showing how tourism real estate has developed in Vallarta since the arrival of his family.

The Wulffs were pioneers in many respects, but it was in real estate that Guillermo and his family really made their mark. It is fairly safe to say that the Wulffs helped the tourism real estate industry of Puerto Vallarta get off the ground. Guillermo would build the homes, and Nellie would socialize with the rich Americans who were looking for a place to get away from it all.

Luis was just a boy, but as he grew up he became involved in real estate with his father and brother Memo. They went from building homes in Gringo Gulch to larger properties in Conchas Chinas. They helped pioneer the first large condominium developments built in the Los Muertos area and were certainly the first in Marina Vallarta – no one would build there until Guillermo and sons came along and took a chance with a development everyone said was “too far out of town.” Their marketing plan involved selling a condominium to Elizabeth Taylor (she bought one and got the second free), a friend of Guillermo since the days of “The Night of the Iguana.”

Guillermo and Luis were also among the first to build at Punta de Mita – with people again saying it was too far from Puerto Vallarta, but they still sold the units. They didn’t always do as well as they had originally hoped, for it seems that after giving away numerous units to family members, which they often did, there wasn’t much left for the bottom line.

It was while enjoying the festivities at Luis’ birthday bash and seeing the many people in attendance who also had helped develop Puerto Vallarta that I realized that Luis’ life has covered the whole span from the beginning of Vallarta’s real estate market to where it is today. And, although Luis has been content to just concentrate on the operations of the El Dorado since the passing of his father a few years ago, lately he’s been talking about a new project, getting back into the real estate game and carrying on the family destiny. After all, it’s in the blood!