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| Billion Dollar Tourism Project For Guanacaste
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By Ralph Nicholson |
The Beach Times – Friday, August 31, 2007 |
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Two Hotels, Marina, Golf Course and 800 Home Sites
US developers on Wednesday announced plans for a 15-year, billion-dollar tourism project, to start construction in November on two beach-front properties in Guanacaste’s north.
The project, known simply as Guacamaya after one of the beaches, will include a Ritz Carlton hotel, a smaller, as-yet-unnamed boutique hotel, an 18-hole golf course, a 200-slip marina, an equestrian center and up to 800 single family homes.
For the first time, the project will include a desalinization plant that will turn sea water into drinking water and ease pressure on Guanacaste’s fragile water supplies.
“This further consolidates the area as a destination for the upscale tourist market,” said the Minister for Tourism, Carlos Ricardo Benavides, at a party to launch the project.
“To be chosen for the site of such an upscale or high end project, well, it is not every country that can do this,” he told about 120 invited guests from local and national government and the tourism industry.
Mr Benavides was speaking after officially opening the offices of Plantación Properties, an affiliate of Christie’s Great Estates, which will market and sell the residential arm of the project.
The development, to be built on about 800 hectares (2000 acres), is a partnership between Union Box Company of Baltimore in Maryland and Greenfield Partners, a privately-held real estate investment firm in South Norwalk, Connecticut.
The property, which was purchased in two chunks over three years, covers three, white-sand beaches --- Playas Guacamaya and Zapotal, plus the smaller Playa Celeste --- all about 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of Tamarindo.
A $100 million, 110-room Ritz Carlton hotel will be built across Zapotal beach, beginning construction late next year. Larry Silverstein, the Chief Executive Officer of Union Box Company, said he expected the hotel to be completed by the end of 2010.
“We talked to a number of hotels --- we approached some and others approached us --- but it was clear the Ritz was a very good fit for us,” Mr Silverstein said.
“That whole area is somewhat unknown,” he added. “For most people the world stops after Playa Potrero and starts again, further north, at Playa Ocotal. The Ritz is a distinct brand that can bring immediate recognition, as opposed to there being just another hotel.”
It is understood the developers will build the hotel, while the Ritz will lend its name to the structure, taking a management fee and a percentage of room sales, as has become customary with hotel projects.
Work on an 18-hole golf course, designed by architect Rees Jones, will start at the same time as the hotel. Mr Jones, who has designed more than 100 golf courses, mainly in the US, will lay out the course in the Zapotal Valley, which stretches about four kilometers back from the coast. There will be no residential sites within the valley.
A 200 slip marina, capable of docking so-called mega-yachts of up to 92 meters long (300 feet) will be sited at the southern end of the development, between Zapotal and Celeste beaches.
A boutique hotel, yet to be named, and of somewhere between 50 and 100 rooms, will be built to service the marina.
However, phase one, including more than 100 residential homes, will begin construction within three months, giving developers cash flow while they build the hotel, marina and golf course.
“We will release 140 lots to start with in what will be known as the Beach Village,” said Molly Harris, President of Plantación Properties.
“There will be architectural guidelines upon what people can build but at the same time our clients don’t want to deal with a cookie-cutter mentality,” Ms Harris said.
She confirmed house prices were likely to start around $800,000.
In phase two, luxury home lots --- about 100 of them --- will be released. Architects from both the United States and Costa Rica, will then build a variety of model homes. The houses will sell for between $5 and $10 million each.
There will be an equestrian center and horse trails throughout the property. Developers will also include a mountain-bike trail. Both are likely to spill over into neighboring properties as developers seek to share amenities.
In fact two other developments --- the Rosewood Hotel to the north and the project known as Las Catalinas to the south --- have already pledged to share such infrastructure as roadwork and possibly power.
It is also likely Guacamaya’s neighbors will want to share water infrastructure as well.
“The problem is not the existence of water but the infrastructure to distribute it,” Tourism Minister, Benevavides, said in response to questions. “And I have no doubt these projects are going to help us solve the problem.”
Mr Benavides confirmed the developers had formally asked for government assistance in setting up a desalinization plant.
“This is a brand new concept. We will be able to explain the project to the other institutions in the country and help them get through the red tape,” Mr Benavides said.
Mr Silverstein said the biggest challenges they faced were the same as for every developer along the coast --- a lack of infrastructure, finding a suitably skilled work-force and a backlog in supply of building materials.
“No there is not enough water,” he said. “We are not the only ones tapping that water reserve. We believe we have sufficient water to maintain the residential component, which is why we are building the desalinization plant.
“A desalinization plant is a new idea here, but the fact is that most of the resorts across the Caribbean are all operating on desalinized water.
“It is something we must do. I think what will bring buyers is the level of assurance we can give them. They want to be safe, they want water when they arrive here, and they want a constant supply of electricity.”
There have been a rash of developers announcing luxury hotel projects in the past 10 months.
The El Salvador-based Grupo Poma conglomerate, has already broken ground on a five-star, 180-room, JW Marriott resort on the property known as Hacienda Pinilla, south of Tamarindo.
The US-based, Global Financial Group has also announced plans for a $300 million 320-room Hyatt resort in Brasilito, and late last year two Minnesota developers announced they would build a $120 million, 150-room Regent Hotel on Guanacaste’s Papagayo Peninsula.
Steve Case, the founder of the internet giant America Online, announced plans last month to open an $800 million beach resort just south of Playa Hermosa, featuring two boutique hotels.
Meanwhile, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, confirmed it has signed a management contract with developers HPC Costa Carmel Limitada to manage a new luxury resort to be built upon a 60-hectare (150-acre) property on Playa Guachipelín
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| Saudi Billionaire Hints At Hotel Investment |
By Ralph Nicholson
The Beach Times – Friday, August 17, 2007
Saudi billionaire, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, arrived in Costa Rica this week, saying he wanted to build six hotels in the country, two of them in the Gulf of Papagayo in Guanacaste.
Prince Al-Waleed, whose Kingdom Holding Company is the biggest foreign investor in the United States, announced his hotel investment plan after a 30-minute meeting with President Oscar Arias in Casa Presidencial.
The investments are likely to be made through the Raffles and Fairmont chains of hotels.
“We are exploring the opportunity of making additional investments in Costa Rica,” Prince Al-Waled said.
“The Four seasons Hotel operating in Papagayo has placed Costa Rica on the radar of the five-star hotel customers of the world,” he added.
“It is too early to talk about amounts to invest and time terms. However the project development companies are discussing the convenience of establishing the Raffles and Fairmont hotels in this country.”
In January last year he and a partner --- the US real estate company Colony Capital --- closed a $3.9 billion deal to buy Fairmont Hotel & Resorts. Today Fairmont has 53 hotels and resorts in 11 countries, mostly in Canada and the US.
More recently Prince Al-Waleed announced that, with Bill Gates, he would take the Toronto-based Four Seasons Hotel chain private for $3.8 billion, including debt.
The bid was made up of three separate investors, which include Bill Gates’ Cascade Investment LLC, Isadore Sharp, chief executive and chairman of the Four Seasons Hotels LLC, as well as the 52-year-old Prince.
The Prince would not be drawn on where all the hotels might be sited, but he said: “ Costa Rica has a democratic system and political and economical stability that provide the necessary confidence to increase investments in this country,” he said.
Prince Al-Waleed and his entourage of about 50 arrived at Liberia’s Daniel Oduber International Airport from Panama on board his private Boeing 747-400, in the green and white livery of the Kingdom Holding Company. The huge jetliner can travel more than 13,000 kilometers (about 7200 miles) without re-fuelling at a cruising speed of 900 kilometers per hour (about 560mph).
A smaller, Raytheon Hawker 800-A business jet, in matching colors, accompanied the bigger plane.
The entourage took 48 rooms in Peninsula Papagayo’s Four Seasons Hotel. Contrary to earlier reports, there were other guests in the hotel.
He did not play golf, but walked the property extensively.
“He was absolutely fascinated with the beauty of the project,” said one familiar with the Prince’s movements. “It is the first time he had come and I don’t think he expected so much beauty.”
The Prince and his entourage left Costa Rica on Tuesday, flying on to Guatemala, before continental USA and Hawaii.
Prince Al-Waleed is grandson of King Abdul Azis al Sad, who founded Saudi Arabia in 1932, nephew of the current ruler King Abdalà, and grandson of Riad El-Solh, the first Prime Minister of modern day Lebanon.
According to Forbes magazine, the Prince was last year the 13th richest person in the world. His estimated net wealth of $20.3 million puts him a mere $400 million behind 84-year-old Liliane Bettencourt, daughter of L’Oréal founder Eugene Schueller and $200 million ahead of India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, the petrochemicals billionaire.
The difference is Prince Al-Waleed’s fortune is self-made.
After graduating from Menlo College with a Bachelor of Arts and from Syracuse University with a Master of Science, he is reported to have used a $30,000 loan from his father to begin brokering deals with foreign companies wanting to do business in Saudi Arabia.
This was followed by land deals in the 1980s, along with major investments in the Saudi banking industry, which proved to be undervalued at the time. His activities as an investor really took off when he bought a substantial chunk of shares in an ailing Citibank, in the 1990s. His holdings in Citibank are now said to account for half his wealth.
He also has a seven per stake in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation Limited and has made big investments in AOL, Apple Inc., Worldcom, and Motorola.
While considered to be outside politics, he drew the ire of New Yorkers and the then Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the US. While touring the site of the World Trade Center attack, he suggested the United States “should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause.”
Mayor Giuliani subsequently rejected the Prince’s $10 million donation to disaster relief.
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Government To Launch Carbon-Neutral Tourism
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| By Leland Baxter-Neal |
The Beach Times - Friday, August 03, 2007 |
Airlines, Car Rentals, Hotels, Tour Operators All Go Green
As part of its high-profile efforts to reduce global climate change, the national government will announce a new program later this month to bring “carbon neutrality” to the tourism sector.
The program, which is already in effect, allows businesses, citizens and tourists to offset the greenhouse-gas emissions they produce by conserving or reforesting Costa Rican forests.
Airlines, car rental companies, hotels and tour operators are among the different businesses in the tourism sector already involved with the program, called Clean Trip, and reflect a growing international trend toward “green,” carbon-neutral tourism.
“There are estimates that an airbus that uses 7000 gallons of fuel generates 70 metric tons of carbon dioxide that goes into the atmosphere,” said Alberto García, of the Fondo Nacional De Financimiento Forestal, (National Fund for Forest Financing, or FONAFIFO).
“Of the 1.675 million tourists that arrived here last year, we know that 1.380 million come by plane.”
Later this month, FONAFIFO is planning to officially launch Clean Trip, the tourism-oriented flank of its Payment for Environmental Services program, where a percentage tax from gasoline sales is used to pay private individuals and businesses to protect existing forests or to plant new ones on the land they own.
Under Clean Trip, FONAFIFO is now setting its sights largely on foreign tourists coming to Costa Rica, whose numbers are expected to exceed last year’s record 1.6 million.
“Through Clean Trip, if I come from the United States or Canada or whatever part of the world, I can compensate my emissions,” Mr García said.
Greenhouse gasses – particularly carbon dioxide – are released when fossil fuels, such as oil or gasoline, are burned. Those gasses get trapped in the atmosphere and keep heat from escaping the planet, therefore increasing global temperatures. Forests, however, act like large filters, capturing and storing carbon dioxide.
As part of the Clean Trip program, FONAFIFO calculates the amount of greenhouse gasses released during a tourist’s air flight to Costa Rica, and the tourist then makes a corresponding donation to conserve or reforest a chunk of rainforest large enough to counteract the emissions.
The logic follows an international system of carbon trading developed under the anti-global warming Kyoto Protocol, and has been heralded by President Oscar Arias in his Peace with Nature environmental plan, which looks to position Costa Rica as the first carbon-neutral nation by 2021.
According to a special calculator on FONAFIFO’s Web site, www.fonafifo.com, a trip from the western United States, for example, produces two tons of carbon dioxide and can be countered with a $10 donation. A trip from the United Kingdom produces five metric tons, countered by a $25 donation, while an Australian would need to pay $45 for his or her nine metric tons of carbon dioxide.
While the site is up and operating in Spanish, an English version with a system to allow payments by any Mastercard or Visa credit card is expected to be ready some time this month.
But tourists are not the only ones involved in the program. Environment Minister Roberto Dobles and Tourism Minister Carlos Ricardo Benavides are two top officials that are already using the system for every trip they make, Mr García said.
“The tourism minister has given instruction so all officials in different ministries access the pages and make donations when they travel,” Mr García said, pointing to a section of the site where these trips are publicly registered. “So, you can see the importance of this.”
Tourism businesses in Costa Rica have also gotten involved.
Nature Air, a locally founded airline with regular flights in Costa Rica and to Panama, and charters throughout Central America, is considered by many to have led the way toward carbon-neutral tourism in Costa Rica, and claims to be the first airline in the world to be completely carbon neutral.
For every flight made, be it regularly scheduled or charter, FONAFIFO calculates the company’s total emissions with a mathematical equation developed under the Kyoto Protocol, and Nature Air donates an equivalent amount of money for forest protection.
Since the program began in 2004, the airline has donated more than $40,000 to conserve for five years 124 hectares, or 307 acres, of forest in the Osa Peninsula.
“We chose this area and are trying collaborate with the protection of a biological corridor between the Corcovado National Park and the Piedras Blancas National Park,” said Lisette Acosta, Nature Air’s marketing director.
The program has won Nature Air international accolades, as well as customer praise, particularly from Europeans, Ms Acosta said.
“In Europe, airlines give them the option of compensating for their travel when they pay. When they get to Costa Rica and see an airline that is already doing that, without a surcharge, they are very interested,” Ms Acosta added.
Mapache Rent a Car, with offices across Costa Rica, has followed Nature Air’s lead and claims to be the first carbon-neutral car rental agency in Costa Rica. Following the same program for its car rentals, Mapache paid to reforest 17 hectares, or 42 acres, in the Osa Peninsuala for its total emissions in 2006.
The Rainmaker Conservation Project, a 1500-acre private rainforest preserve located between Parrita and Quépos on the Central Pacific coast, and a beneficiary of FONAFIFO’s program. The project is paid to protect almost half its preserve and also markets itself as a “carbon-neutral” tourism destination.
“All of the visitors that come, all of the pollution set off by our pickup guys, all our fuel in the minibuses, any pollution caused in the kitchen, that is all offset,” said Alessandra Gutiérrez, who founded the project along with her mother Anne Gutiérrez. “They come to Rainmaker and they have kind of a carbon-neutral tour.”
The preserve has a capacity for storing nearly 250,000 tons of carbon dioxide, Ms Gutiérrez said, more than enough to offset the emissions produced by the company’s operations.
Ms Gutiérrez says that marketing Rainmaker as carbon-neutral hasn’t seeked more tourists, nor was it intended to.
“It just brings awareness to the problems we’re having with the environment and it brings awareness to what rainforests actually do,” Ms Gutiérrez said.
Michael Defields, who runs a tour company, E4 Initiatives (www.e4costarica.com) out of Jacó, met last week with FONAFIFO, looking to make his tours carbon neutral.
“We want to include air travel, ground transportation and domestic flights, as well as hotels,” Mr Defields said, adding that the hotel component would be based on the average amount of electricity used per guest, and how much fossil fuel that translates into. “FONAFIFO said they could help calculate all that for us.”
Mr Defields said the carbon offsetting will be one of several options he offers to tourists to make their trips to Costa Rica more sustainable.
“I feel there is a specific group of travelers or tourists that are looking for something that is a little more,” he said. “When they’re taking out the trash, or traveling, they’re looking for ways that they can be individually responsible for their impact.”
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Developers Announce Hotel Projects in Guanacaste |
| By By Ralph Nicholson and Zoraida Diaz |
| The Beach Times - Friday, August 10, 2007 |
Rosewood, Miraval, One and Only to Open Mid-2010
Developers have announced plans for three luxury hotels to be built on two properties within ten kilometers of each other on the northern Guanacaste coast.
Steve Case, the founder of the internet giant America Online, announced plans Friday to open an $800 million beach resort just south of Playa Hermosa, featuring two boutique hotels, a tennis center designed by husband-and-wife tennis stars Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf and an 18-hole golf course by Tom Doak.
Meanwhile, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, confirmed it has signed a management contract with developers HPC Costa Carmel Limitada to manage a new luxury resort to be built upon a 60-hectare (150-acre) property on Playa Guachipelín.
Both developments are scheduled to open in 2010.
Mr Case, who announced his project alongside President Oscar Arias, told a press conference the resort would be built on 263 hectares (650 acres) known as Punta Cacique. The resort will leave 80 per cent of that land undeveloped as a private natural reserve.
“I first visited Costa Rica four years ago and instantly fell in love with it,” Mr Case told reporters. “It struck my heart. Cacique is one of the most beautiful peninsulas anywhere in the world.”
The announcement also marks the launch of Revolution Places, the new destination resort unit of Revolution, a holding-and-operating company founded by Mr Case in 2005 with $500 million of his own money.
The resort will have 270 guest rooms and 300 private homes. One and Only Resorts, a hotel firm with locations worldwide, will operate the beachfront hotel. Exclusive Resorts, a luxury time-share business owned by Revolution, will build 30 of the resort’s homes. Miraval, a destination spa owned by Revolution, will operate a facility with 120 rooms and 60 villas.
Mr Case, who was born in Hawaii, said he wanted to avoid what developers have done to Waikiki, pledging to make the new resort an environmentally friendly destination.
“We are making a number of commitments,” he said. “We will plant one million trees in nearby rivers. We want to give $1 million to universities and local businesses to nurture and incubate ideas. We are trying to live in peace with nature.”
Mr Case also pledged to improve infrastructure in the area, particularly regarding water.
“I am very aware of the problems in the area. We understand there are short periods during the day when people do not have water,” he said in response to questions.
“A part of what we acquired was access to water and we’ve told our people it’s a priority for us to allocate some back into the community. We’re hoping to release some of the water. I have not talked directly to them (the mayor, the community), but I know members of my group have.”
President Arias described the Revolution Places project as the greatest investment yet to be made in Costa Rica.
“Without doubt, Cacique will be extremely important for Guanacaste and Costa Rica,” he said. “I am grateful that of 263 hectares that were acquired only 20 per cent will be built upon.”
Last week a group representing Revolution Places presented the project to the Municipality of Carrillo. Mr Case was not present, but the group’s President, Darren Linnartz, outlined the project, saying they would begin construction on roads by the end of the year.
Work on 120 hotel rooms would begin between April and June next year.
They will also apply for permission to build a marina and dock for up to 75 boats.
“We aim to build a residential marina which is for the local community,” Mr Linnartz told the council.
“In the first instance it is very important because it will generate jobs,” the Mayor, Carlos Gerardo Cantillo, said after the meeting. “They are not talking about just luxury homes, but a hotel that is a larger source for employment.”
And there are the direct benefits to the municipality, which can expect one per cent of the total construction in building permit fees. That alone is $8 million.
“We want to invest in this area,” Mr Linnartz told the council meeting last week.
“…the idea is that as you are getting ready to approve next year’s budget we would like to help in this budgetary period so that your income will increase and with this, you can help the communities.”
The deal to put a Rosewood Hotel on Playa Zapotal, about ten kilometers south of the Revolution project, has been on the table for more than seven years, but it is now signed.
The resort and residential properties will be built in two construction phases.
Two-level, four-bedroom model residential units will begin construction in November this year, as will the complex’s beach club. The 80-room hotel, which will include 12 deluxe suites and one presidential suite, all to be built among the residential units, will start in August of 2008.
“This is a very green construction,” said Ronald Arias, Project Manager for Rosewood Costa Carmel.
“The hotel units will be next to the residential units, and no more than two levels,” he added.
“When you open the windows you must see greenery. Nothing will be built higher than the tree line.”
The complex will be designed by Three Architecture, a Dallas, Texas-based group that specializes in four and five-star hotels, resorts, country clubs and spas. It was founded 24 years ago, and has designed a Rosewood Hotel before --- the Rosewood Mayakoba Resort, in Riviera Maya, in Mexico.
“As our brand continues to grow internationally, Costa Rica was a natural choice for a new Rosewood resort,” said John M. Scott III, President and CEO of Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, in a prepared release.
Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, which is a privately-held luxury hotel management company, has no equity in the project and lends its brand in return for a management contract. The backers of the development are Roger Hall, a developer from California and owner of the land, and Grupo Inmobiliaria Génesis, which represents a group of investors.
The resort, which is scheduled to open in April of 2008, has no golf course; instead the developers will negotiate a sharing arrangement with their neighbors.
Farther south, the Baltimore, Maryland-based Union Box Company, has negotiated for a Ritz Carlton Hotel, probably with around 150 rooms, to be built on 405 hectares (1000 acres) in the Zapotal Valley. The project, which has direct access to Playa Guacamaya, will include a golf course.
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| Foreign Investment in Local Property Trebles
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By Leland Baxter-Neal
The Beach Times - Friday, July 13, 2007
Central Bank Points To First Quarter in Puntarenas and Guanacaste
Foreign investment in Costa Rica’s real estate industry has nearly tripled in the past 12 months, according to Costa Rica’s Central Bank.
By the bank’s estimate, mostly US investors and homebuyers bought at least $192 million worth of property in the first three months of this year, largely in the provinces of Guanacaste and Puntarenas. That compares to $70 million during the same period in 2006.
The estimate excludes purchases of hotels, tourism businesses and deals worth less than $100,000, and is recognized to be likely short of the real figure.
“Certainly, as the recent Central Bank study shows, an important factor in the increment of foreign investment in the last months has been real estate development and property acquisition by foreigners,” said the Minister of the Presidency, Rodrigo Arias.
“Much of this development is related to the tourism industry, precisely one of the engines of the country’s economy.”
In fact, real estate prices up and down the Pacific coast have risen over the last year, as Guanacaste’s market matures and the Central Pacific looks to be entering its own boom.
Real Estate agents up and down the coast told The Beach Times this week the bank’s figures measure up to what they’re seeing in their areas, where business continues to be good with both price and demand rising.
Development is also becoming more high-end, they concurred, with more sophisticated and environmentally conscious developers and buyers following the path beaten years earlier by The Four Seasons Hotel, on the Papagayo Peninsula.
In the Central Pacific sales are booming, as condominium projects go up rapidly along the coast. Many investors are looking further toward the horizon, however, in expectation of high-end, name-brand projects like those that have drawn so much press further north.
In Guanacaste, the high-volume land purchasing of past years has given way to concentrated development, as much of the valuable beachfront and ocean view property has been bought up and many of the projects that were sold under pre-construction deals are now under way.
“We personally aren’t slow, but I know that the trend has slowed down an awful lot,” said Penelope Lent, of Lent Eckhart Properties, from her office in Flamingo this week.
“The big parcels purchased in 2005 and 2006 are now going vertical,” she said. “There are all kinds of things in the pipeline, but they’re not available at this moment, and might not be available for another year.”
Bob Davey, of Century 21 in Flamingo described business as brisk.
“Last year was the biggest sales volume year we’ve had, and our company has grown every year. So far, through June, we are way ahead of the pace of ‘06, and the end of the year looks strong,” Mr Davey said. “And it’s large, sophisticated investors, private and institutional, that we’re working with.
“President Oscar Arias has really kicked into gear to follow up on his promises to improve infrastructure, and that’s really helped turn around the negative publicity we had over the last two years,” Mr Davey added.
According to Les Nunez, of First Realty, in Guanacaste’s Playa Hermosa, land prices have “gone double, to double-and-a-half.”
“Ocean views are $500 per square meter and up, easily,” Mr Nunez said. “There’s been reports in Tamarindo of $1000 per meter.”
Single family homes range from $600,000 to $1.5 million, and are being sold for about double what they got last year, he added, while raw land has, in some cases, “gone triple."
Mr Nunez chalks up the jump in prices to the arrival of major name brand projects in the region, such as the Westin Hotels and Resorts and the Mandarin-Oriental.
Some 20 high-end hotels are currently being planned or built for Guanacaste’s northern coast, which would add hundreds of rooms to the area’s offerings and represent hundreds of millions of dollars in investment.
Mario Solano, an economist with the Central Bank who worked on the property investment estimate, said that, though tourism investment figures for 2007 are not yet available, it nearly tripled between 2005 and 2006. He expects this year’s growth to be “a little more than that,” which is a factor pushing real estate investment.
“We see a relationship between the two. The Hyatt comes out promoting people to come stay at its hotel, and a lot of people are going to be interested in buying property in that area."
That is precisely what has real estate agents in the Central Pacific, particularly around Jacó, excited. Last year, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide announced they would be building a St Regis Resort with residential elements in the Central Pacific with Costa Rican development firm Genesis.
In addition to 133 luxury hotel rooms, the project includes 49 "condominium-hotel residences,” 42 “whole-ownership condos” and nine estate homes.
In Esterillos, just south of Jacó, two golf courses and attached residential communities – Cabo Caletas and Del Pacífico – are under construction. In Jacó, an estimated 2000 condos are at different stages of development, from un-permitted plans to near-completion.
“What’s happened is the Central Pacific has really now started to move in a forward direction, with growth and bigger name projects with branding,” said Scott Williams, a real estate agent with 2 Costa Rica Realty. “Those things were before exclusively Guanacaste.”
Prices remain lower than in Guanacaste on the average, but have still increased dramatically, sometimes double, over the last year.
Tim Kopatich, with Crystal Clear Realty, said that 1800-square-foot homes that his company is selling in Bejuco, south of Esterillos, have gone from $135,000 last year to $275,000 today. In general, however, he says prices in and around Jacó have increased about 35 to 40 percent over the last year.
Jeff Fisher, of CR Beach Investment Real Estate, says prices in Jacó, Herradura and Playa Hermosa are up, and sometimes way up.
“I worry when two-bedroom beachfront condos sell for more than $500,000, because the infrastructure hasn’t caught up with this new pattern of prices,” Mr Fisher said.
“A year ago a two-bedroom beach front house was $375,000. It was cute that Jacó didn’t have any traffic lights or bike paths and had very few police. Now that prices have risen dramatically, its important that the new mayor and the chamber of commerce work quickly to demonstrate that changes are being made, as minor as putting a traffic light.”
Mr Fisher added that, despite some extremes, the bulk of his condo sales are still around $250,000 to $350,000, and that condo prices in general have risen by about 25 per cent over the last year, while raw beachfront land has risen slightly more.
“They’re asking $1000 to $1400 per square meter, while a year ago they were asking $600 to $1000,” he said.
Most dramatic, however, has been the increase in rent for commercial space along Jacó’s main boulevard, Avenida Pastor Díaz, Mr Fisher said, where rent has gone from $300 per square meter to $1000.
Mr Fisher said his buyers “are overwhelmingly buying condos, but a lot of my sales are also gated-community, single-family homes five blocks from the beach for $215,000.
“Ninety per cent of the people are buying for investment purposes or for rental income. Ten per cent are telling me they want to move there,” Mr Fisher said.
Further south, near Manuel Antonio, property values have risen less dramatically, according to 2 Costa Rica Realty’s Williams. He estimates prices have increased about 15 to 20 per cent across the board.
While raw beachfront land is now impossible to come by, 1000 to 1500-square-meter ocean view lots can be found for $250,000 to $350,000, he said.
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