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Records Trace Quinta Encanto to Early Vallarta Civic Family
[Editors Note: Special thanks to attorney Alonso Salinas for his help in researching the historical records of this property. We write this story as a means of helping to preserve some of the history of Colonial Emiliano Zapata (Zona Romantica) We have pieced together as much of the history of the property and its residents as we could based on records available.]
A new condominium development, the 94-Unit Velōa Residences, is planned for the corner property at Constitución 264 in the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood, a site long known as the home Quinta Encanto and tied through records and oral history to one of Puerto Vallarta’s early civic families.
The property, which was once used to grow fruit trees and had honey bee hives, is located in what is now the city’s Zona Romántica. It occupies a large corner parcel in a densely built area where many structures date to the mid-20th century or earlier. For decades, the residence stood amid small commercial spaces and was a fixture of a neighborhood that later became a center of Vallarta’s LGBTQ+ community.
Public Registry of Property records show that the first formal registration of the property occurred on July 17, 1989, when ownership was recorded in the name of María del Refugio Betancourt Rodríguez. Her death certificate lists her habitual residence as Constitución 264, confirming her long-term connection to the site.
Diego Betancourt Rodríguez was born July 15, 1908, in Tomatlán, Jalisco, and died March 25, 1999, in Puerto Vallarta. She was the daughter of Diego Betancourt Verde, a documented early figure in the municipality’s civic and agrarian history.
Diego Betancourt Verde, born in 1879 and deceased in 1962, appears in municipal records and historical publications as an ejidatario, community leader and participant in the early development of Puerto Vallarta, then known as Las Peñas.
He served in various public roles between the 1920s and 1940s and was president of the Municipal Board of Water, a precursor to today’s municipal water authority, SEAPAL.
Local historical accounts describe Betancourt Verde as holding agricultural land in what later became the Emiliano Zapata neighborhood, where he cultivated crops and maintained beehives and fruit trees. While no early deed has yet been located linking him directly to the construction of the home at Constitución 264, historians and family records associate the property with his household.
Ownership of many older properties in Puerto Vallarta was not formally recorded until decades after construction, particularly those originating on ejido or communal land. That context helps explain why the first official registration of Quinta Encanto did not occur until 1989.
The property remained in the Betancourt family until 2025, when it was sold by heirs of Betancourt Rodríguez. Developers have since announced plans for Velōa, a new condominium project to be built on the site.
The transition marks the end of one of the neighborhood’s older residential properties and reflects the continuing redevelopment of Emiliano Zapata, an area shaped by generations of local families before becoming one of the city’s most recognizable districts.
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