Over the past 10 months, Costa Rica has seen a lot of plans fall into place in the Guanacaste province.  An El Salvadorian based group has broken ground on a five star, 180 room JW Marriot resort just south of Tamarindo.  In addition, a US based group has plans for a $300 million 320 room Hyatt in Brasilito and then last year a $120 million, 150 room Regent Hotel was announced for the Papagayo Pennisula.  Furthermore, Steve Case, the mastermind of America Online, announced his plans for a $800 million beach resort with two boutique hotels just south of Playa Hermosa. 

Just recently, the largest of all the projects was announced. It is a 15 year, billion dollar project on two beach front properties in Guanacaste with construction starting in November.

The project includes a Ritz Carlton hotel, a smaller boutique hotel, an 18 hole golf course, an equestrian center, a 200 slip marina, and 800 single family homes.    In the past three years, the property has been purchased in chunks and is just 16 miles north of Tamarindo and includes Playas Guacamaya, Zapotal, and Celeste.  This project will be a destination for the upscale tourist market according to the Minister for Tourism, Carlos Ricardo Benavides. 

For the first time on the Pacific of Costa Rica, the project will include a desalinization plant to convert salt ocean water into drinking water.  This is necessary for the area as the water supply for the province is sensitive and will not be able to support the number of growing projects in the region. 

There is just not enough water in the region and in order to assure the new residences that they will have a constant water supply, constant electricity, and few problems, this must be done.  In addition, most of the Caribbean resorts are operating with desalinization plants, so this is not a new idea per say, just new for the area. 

The $100 million, 100 room Ritz Carlton will be built across from Zapotal beach and will begin construction hopefully next November and be ready for opening near the end of 2010.  The 18 hole gold course construction will start at the same time and will be approximately 4 kilometers from the beach in the valley.  The boutique hotel will be somewhere around 50 to 100 rooms and will be built to accommodate the marina.  

There are two different phases to the residential houses.  Phase one is around 100 homes and is set to start in the next three months.  These homes will be known as the Beach Village, with architectural guidelines but not a cookie cutter mentality which will be sold for around $800,000.  Phase two includes luxury lots with a variety of model homes designed by both Costa Rican and American architects.  These will be anywhere from $5 to $10 million. 

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Filed under: Costa Rica News on September 3rd, 2007