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It’s been close to 15 years since Gianfranco Fini’s vision for a world-class marina and yacht club in Casa de Campo became a reality. The Italian architect, designer and one of the master minds behind the Marina Casa de Campo considers his star project to be a constant work in progress, proposing and spearheading architectural ventures such as the recent renovation of the Nacional Supermarket, which comes to serve a specific purpose within his overall vision for the Caribbean’s most exclusive marina.
We sat down to talk to Gianfranco over a cup of coffee and amidst layouts for dozens of blueprints that he and his daughter Nicola are currently working on out of Studio Fin, their architecture and design firm in Casa de Campo.
After the new and renovated Nacional Supermarket opened over a month ago, larger crowds of Casa de Campo community members have been seen strolling the newly renovated and spacious isles. Although excited about the community’s evident enthusiasm of the renovation, this comes to no surprise to Gianfranco, who anticipated that the design would be well received by the community.
Although there are way too many things we love about the newly renovated supermarket, here are our top 10 modifications that Studio Fini worked on which make Nacional Supermarket awesome:
1. The supermarket now features more comfortable parking spaces as the loading and unloading zone for Nacional’s trucks has been moved to a more strategic location out of the customers’ view.
2. The facade looks spectacular and fits in perfectly with the Marina style
3. The Bodega —where we stock up on wine and spirits on a regular basis— has now been moved to the first floor (we find ourselves visiting it so much more than the previous second floor location!).
4. The frozen food section is bigger and you can now find many great products that were not available before due to previous space limitations.
5. There is a huge cold room (bring a sweater because its COLD in there!) with a selection of the freshest produce and now in bigger quantities.
6. BEER LOVERS will absolutely flip out when entering an entire cold room dedicated to BEER.
7. The bakery has its own space similar to that of the Bodega. Fresh bread is being baked constantly.
8. The aisles are very spacious! There is plenty of room for several carts to stroll through at a time without it being an issue.
9. There is so much more inventory due to the more ample “backstage” warehouse. There is little need to go to La Romana to find specialty things anymore!
10. More cashiers and more space at check out!
