By David Crary
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, October 8, 1998; 4:31 p.m. EDT

TORONTO (AP) -- For the first time ever, foreign tourists will be able to buy condominiums and time-share units along Cuba's beaches as a part of $250 million Canadian-Cuban joint venture unveiled Thursday.

The project, backed by Cuba's communist government, calls for construction of 2,000 luxury units over the next 10 years and is one of the biggest outside investments yet in Cuba's tourism industry.

At least in the short term, American citizens won't be among those buying into the new resorts. Under the longstanding U.S. trade embargo, Americans generally aren't allowed to spend money in Cuba.

But other foreigners have no such constraints. Cuban and Canadian executives expect Western Europeans and Canadians to snap up the new units, including condos starting at $200,000 and time-share units starting at $5,000 for annual one-week stays.

The project is a joint venture between Cuba's top hotel company, Gran Caribe Hotel Corp., and a Canadian-based real estate development company called Cuban Canadian Resorts International.

Executives of the two companies were joined at a news conference Thursday in Toronto by Eduardo de la Vega, Cuba's vice minister for tourism.

He said tourist visits to Cuba have mushroomed from less than 350,000 in 1990 to more than 1.2 million last year. Canada provided the most visitors -- 170,000 -- followed by Italy, Germany, Spain and France.

Canada, a staunch opponent of the U.S. trade embargo, has become one of Cuba's biggest trading partners, with annual two-way trade exceeding $700 million. The new project is one of more than 30 joint ventures involving the two countries.

The joint venture, called Cuban Club Resorts, is headed by David McMillan, a former chairman of the Hotel Association of Canada.

He said planning for the project began five years ago. He added that the Helms-Burton law and other U.S. legislation aimed at discouraging foreign investment in Cuba would have no effect on the project.

Documents released at the news conference suggested that there will a shortage of high-quality hotel rooms for tourists in Cuba even if the U.S. embargo remains in place.

``It is almost impossible to predict the growth that will occur when the embargo softens to allow tourism,'' one brochure said.

Initially, Cuban Club Resorts plans to build luxury resorts at four locations -- Santa Maria del Mar, Santa Lucia, Varadero and Cayo Coco.

The first one will be at Santa Maria del Mar, 11 miles east of Havana. Construction is to begin in March, McMillan said.