Relevant Information
Last updated Monday, April 13, 2007
Billion Dollar Tourism Project For Guanacaste
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.
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.
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.
Costa Rica Nets Millions In Debt For Nature Swap
Costa Rica has turned $15 million in foreign debt into $26 million for local conservation, thanks to a “Nature-for-Debt” swap with the United States, a top Environment Ministry official told The Beach Times this week. The agreement is being called the largest of its kind ever signed.
Under the arrangement, which is still being fine-tuned and involves the United States, Costa Rica and the international environmental organizations Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy, Costa Rica will divert payments on more than $12.6 million in debt it owes the United States into a trust fund for environmental projects.
“The Costa Rican government is going to begin to deposit this money into a trust in payments of about $1.5 million a year,” explained Rubén Muñoz, the head of the Ministry of the Environment’s (MINAE) negotiating team.
The agreement should be signed sometime in September, and payments are expected to begin next year. Payments to the trust — including interest — will have totaled around $26 million by the time they are completed in 2024, added Mr Muñoz.
Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy will also contribute an additional $2.6 million to the fund, which will be used to fund environmental conservation in Costa Rica, said Manuel Ramírez, director of Conservation International.
The money will be used to fund conservation projects in five priority areas: the Southern Zone’s biodiversity hot spot, the Osa Peninsula; Guanacaste’s volcanic Rincón de la Vieja National Park, the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve, the Nicoya Peninsula, Tortuguero National Park and the La Maquenque Wildlife Refuge, Mr Muñoz said.
Developers Announce Hotel Projects in Guanacaste
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Costa Rica Nets Millions In Debt For Nature Swap
Costa Rica has turned $15 million in foreign debt into $26 million for local conservation, thanks to a “Nature-for-Debt” swap with the United States, a top Environment Ministry official told The Beach Times this week. The agreement is being called the largest of its kind ever signed.
Under the arrangement, which is still being fine-tuned and involves the United States, Costa Rica and the international environmental organizations Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy, Costa Rica will divert payments on more than $12.6 million in debt it owes the United States into a trust fund for environmental projects.
“The Costa Rican government is going to begin to deposit this money into a trust in payments of about $1.5 million a year,” explained Rubén Muñoz, the head of the Ministry of the Environment’s (MINAE) negotiating team.
The agreement should be signed sometime in September, and payments are expected to begin next year. Payments to the trust — including interest — will have totaled around $26 million by the time they are completed in 2024, added Mr Muñoz.
Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy will also contribute an additional $2.6 million to the fund, which will be used to fund environmental conservation in Costa Rica, said Manuel Ramírez, director of Conservation International.
The money will be used to fund conservation projects in five priority areas: the Southern Zone’s biodiversity hot spot, the Osa Peninsula; Guanacaste’s volcanic Rincón de la Vieja National Park, the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve, the Nicoya Peninsula, Tortuguero National Park and the La Maquenque Wildlife Refuge, Mr Muñoz said.
Developers Announce Hotel Projects in Guanacaste
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.
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.
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