News

• Costa Rica beats out Dominican Republic as "happiest" place in world
• Independent British group claims Costa Ricans have world's highest life satisfaction
• Central American nation also praised for its environmental efforts

(CNN) -- Forget Disneyland! Costa Rica is the happiest place in the world, according to an independent research group in Britain with the goal of building a new economy, "centered on people and the environment."

In a report released Saturday, the group ranks nations using the "Happy Planet Index," which seeks countries with the most content people.

In addition to happiness, the index by the New Economics Foundation considers the ecological footprint and life expectancy of countries.

"Costa Ricans report the highest life satisfaction in the world and have the second-highest average life expectancy of the new world (second to Canada)," the organization said in a statement.

They "also have an ecological footprint that means that the country only narrowly fails to achieve the goal of ... consuming its fair share of the Earth's natural resources."

The Central American country, tucked between Nicaragua and Panama, touts its lush rain forests and pristine beaches. Its president, Oscar Arias Sanchez, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for trying to help end civil wars in several Central American countries.

This year's survey, which looked at 143 countries, featured Latin American nations in nine of the Top 10 spots.

The runner-up was the Dominican Republic, followed by Jamaica, Guatemala and Vietnam.

Most developed nations lagged in the study.

While Britain ranked 74th, the United States snagged the 114th spot, because of its hefty consumption and massive ecological footprint.

The United States was greener and happier 20 years ago than it is today, the report said.

Other populous nations, such as China and India, had a lower index brought on by their vigorous pursuit of growth-based models, the survey suggested.

"As the world faces the triple crunch of deep financial crisis, accelerating climate change and the looming peak in oil production, we desperately need a new compass to guide us," said Nic Marks, founder of the foundation's center for well-being.

Marks urged nations to make a collective global change before "our high-consuming lifestyles plunge us into the chaos of irreversible climate change."

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/07/05/costa.rica.happy.nation/index.html?eref=rss_travel

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Liberia, Costa Rica

Sailing down Costa Rica’s Tempisque River on an eco-tour, I watched a crocodile devour a brown bass with one gulp. It took only a few seconds. The croc’s head emerged from the muddy waters near the bank with the footlong fish writhing in its jaws. He crunched it a couple of times with razor-sharp teeth and then, with just the slightest flip of his snout, swallowed the fish whole. Never saw that before.

These days, visitors can still see amazing biodiversity all over Costa Rica — more than 25 percent of the country is protected area — thanks to a unique system it set up to preserve its cornucopia of plants and animals. Many countries could learn a lot from this system.

More than any nation I’ve ever visited, Costa Rica is insisting that economic growth and environmentalism work together. It has created a holistic strategy to think about growth, one that demands that everything gets counted. So if a chemical factory sells tons of fertilizer but pollutes a river — or a farm sells bananas but destroys a carbon-absorbing and species-preserving forest — this is not honest growth. You have to pay for using nature. It is called “payment for environmental services” — nobody gets to treat climate, water, coral, fish and forests as free anymore.

The process began in the 1990s when Costa Rica, which sits at the intersection of two continents and two oceans, came to fully appreciate its incredible bounty of biodiversity — and that its economic future lay in protecting it. So it did something no country has ever done: It put energy, environment, mines and water all under one minister.

“In Costa Rica, the minister of environment sets the policy for energy, mines, water and natural resources,” explained Carlos M. Rodríguez, who served in that post from 2002 to 2006. In most countries, he noted, “ministers of environment are marginalized.” They are viewed as people who try to lock things away, not as people who create value. Their job is to fight energy ministers who just want to drill for cheap oil.

But when Costa Rica put one minister in charge of energy and environment, “it created a very different way of thinking about how to solve problems,” said Rodríguez, now a regional vice president for Conservation International. “The environment sector was able to influence the energy choices by saying: ‘Look, if you want cheap energy, the cheapest energy in the long-run is renewable energy. So let’s not think just about the next six months; let’s think out 25 years.’ ”

As a result, Costa Rica hugely invested in hydro-electric power, wind and geo-thermal, and today it gets more than 95 percent of its energy from these renewables. In 1985, it was 50 percent hydro, 50 percent oil. More interesting, Costa Rica discovered its own oil five years ago but decided to ban drilling — so as not to pollute its politics or environment! What country bans oil drilling?

Rodríguez also helped to pioneer the idea that in a country like Costa Rica, dependent on tourism and agriculture, the services provided by ecosystems were important drivers of growth and had to be paid for. Right now, most countries fail to account for the “externalities” of various economic activities. So when a factory, farmer or power plant pollutes the air or the river, destroys a wetland, depletes a fish stock or silts a river — making the water no longer usable — that cost is never added to your electric bill or to the price of your shoes.

Costa Rica took the view that landowners who keep their forests intact and their rivers clean should be paid, because the forests maintained the watersheds and kept the rivers free of silt — and that benefited dam owners, fishermen, farmers and eco-tour companies downstream. The forests also absorbed carbon.

To pay for these environmental services, in 1997 Costa Rica imposed a tax on carbon emissions — 3.5 percent of the market value of fossil fuels — which goes into a national forest fund to pay indigenous communities for protecting the forests around them. And the country imposed a water tax whereby major water users — hydro-electric dams, farmers and drinking water providers — had to pay villagers upstream to keep their rivers pristine. “We now have 7,000 beneficiaries of water and carbon taxes,” said Rodríguez. “It has become a major source of income for poor people. It has also enabled Costa Rica to actually reverse deforestation. We now have twice the amount of forest as 20 years ago.”

As we debate a new energy future, we need to remember that nature provides this incredible range of economic services — from carbon-fixation to water filtration to natural beauty for tourism. If government policies don’t recognize those services and pay the people who sustain nature’s ability to provide them, things go haywire. We end up impoverishing both nature and people. Worse, we start racking up a bill in the form of climate-changing greenhouse gases, petro-dictatorships and bio-diversity loss that gets charged on our kids’ Visa cards to be paid by them later. Well, later is over. Later is when it will be too late.

Find this article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/12friedman.html?em

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Costa Rica has been one of the most popular retirement destinations for Americans abroad, and it has boomed as a choice for second homes. No province is as hot for part-timers as Guanacaste on the northwest Pacific coast.

"Costa Rica's appeal as a second-home destination is even greater today: For the first time since real estate began skyrocketing five or six years ago, prices have softened," says Barry Golson, author of Retirement Without Borders: How to Retire Abroad. "With gorgeous jungle, mountain and beach landscapes, Costa Rica continues to set the tourism pace in Central America."

Costa Rica put eco- and adventure tourism on the map, and Guanacaste is home to 98% of the world's rare dry tropical forest. It sits in the hurricane-free zone, and has mostly dry, sunny days from November to April.

It is also home to Arenal, a large man-made lake (the volcano of that name is in Alajuela province), and the pink sand beach Conchal. Outdoor adventure is a big attraction, especially surfing, sportfishing and, increasingly, golf. The Pan American Highway passes through its center, and air travel is easy to Liberia, the provincial capital. "When I came six years ago, there were three direct U.S. flights a week. Now there are more than 50," says Luis Argote, general manager of the Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo.

Though many retirees and expat employees live in Liberia, virtually all vacation ownership property is on the coast. Throughout Guanacaste, the cost of living is low, as are taxes. "For many buyers, property taxes are less per year than they pay per month at home, like $3,000 a year on a $2 million home," says real estate agent Steve Grubba of Peninsula Papagayo.

Three Guanacaste Neighborhoods:

• Tamarindo: This small former fishing village has long been a tourist magnet popular with surfers. It boasts three beaches and is filled with restaurants and hotels. It is also home to the Tamarindo National Wildlife Refuge, where visitors from around the world come to watch (supervised) leatherback turtles lay eggs. Lots near the beach begin in the low $60,000s and new construction homes from just over $100,000. At the same time, new luxury high-rise condominiums fetch about $500,000.

• Playas Flamingo & Potrero: These twin beaches form a rustic but popular second- and year-round-home community. Flamingo is more heavily developed with luxury hilltop homes overlooking the sea, plus hotels, restaurants and a casino. Potrero is quiet and secluded with a small village and more modest homes. New homes in gated Potrero communities begin at $150,000, while Flamingo commands upward of $300,000. In both, condominiums begin at slightly lower prices.

• Peninsula Papagayo: The country's highest profile development spans 2,300 acres with 15 miles of coastline and will be home to several resorts, golf courses, leisure facilities and residential communities. Right now there is a Four Seasons hotel with its own residences (from $2.65 million), a wide array of lots for $600,000-$3 million, one golf course and more than 300 marina condos (some still under construction) from $250,000. The peninsula is surrounded by Santa Rosa National Park.

Find this article at: http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2009-01-08-guanacaste-costa-rica_N.htm

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By Ralph Nicholson

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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By Ralph Nicholson

Investors Lock On Million Dollar Hotel Deals

Guanacaste's northern Pacific coast could see as many as 20 high-end hotels and resorts in the next five years, according to plans by local and international investors.

Up to a dozen golf courses are either in place or on the drawing board.

The proposed hotels are a mix of all-inclusive resorts, five-star hotels by name brands, or smaller boutique hotels of between 70 and 100 rooms.

The Mandarin-Occidental, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, the Canyon Ranch and Spa group, the Hilton Hotels Corporation, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, Regent International Hotels, the Starwood Group’s St. Regis Hotels, the Westin Hotels and Resorts, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, Aman Resorts International and the JW Marriott are all vying for beachfront land.

“I’m enthusiastic because the projects that I know of in the area (Guanacaste) are not high density,” the Minister of Tourism, Carlos Ricardo Benavides, said last week in response to questions.

“The country is not looking for a certain number of rooms,” he added, “(but) we have to supply services in a sustainable manner. We must offer and foresee development.”

Industry insiders are quick to point out as little as 30 per cent of the plans might come to fruition, but that would still mean thousands of extra hotel rooms along just 80 kilometers of coastline.

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. The Hyatt project will include a Greg Norman-designed, 18-hole golf course.

However, this week The Beach Times learned North American investors had signed a deal with the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group to put a luxury hotel on Playa Manzanillo, on Guanacaste’s northern coast.

The eight-hectare property (20 acres) has excellent views and some beachfront.

The Mandarin Oriental now operates, or has under development more than 9500 rooms in 20 countries.

Further, the huge, 840-hectare (about 2000 acres) concession known as Polo Turístico Golfo de Papagayo, is slated for a third hotel.

The concession, on the Papagayo Peninsula, already has the Four Seasons as well as the Allegro Papagayo Hotel, but under the master plan there will eventually be a total of seven hotels or resorts.

Manuel E. Ardón, the director of operations for Ecodesarrollo Papagayo, confirmed a local investor, Grupo Inmobiliaria Génesis S.A., had purchased a concession near Playa Pachote and would be building a third hotel in the area.

“We have a very specific master plan for the concession, defined by the government,” Mr Ardón said, “and that includes up to seven hotels in total.”

Mr Ardón said it was too early to disclose further details; however, Grupo Génesis has already announced it is to build a 133-room St Regis Resort on the Central Pacific Coast.

The New York-based, Westin Hotels and Resorts, is to build a resort near Playa Panama, not far from the project known as Punto del Cacique. Cacique, 216 hectares (about 535 acres) just south of Playa Hermosa, was bought by Steve Case, Chairman of Exclusive Resorts and the Co-Founder of America Online, for a reported $42 million late in 2005.

It is understood Mr Case’s Revolution LLC will build a Miraval Life In Balance resort, based on a similar venture in Tucson, Arizona, as phase one of his project. A One and Only five-star hotel, (part of Kirzner International Ltd) would be part of a second phase. The property includes a semi-complete, 18-hole golf course.

Further south, the Baltimore, Maryland-based Union Box Company, is understood to have negotiated for a Ritz Carlon Hotel, probably with around 150 rooms, to be built on 405 hectares (1000 acres) in the Zapotal Valley. The project, which has beach access, would include a golf course.

Larry Silverstein, Chief Executive Officer of Union Box, said a non-disclosure agreement would not allow him to confirm the deal; however he would say they are planning a villa-style hotel.

“It will not be a big box, but rather two stories with 100 to 150 rooms,” he said.

“We are still working through the preliminary idea, but this is just one piece of a very large project,” Mr Silverstein said. “For example we will only have the one large hotel, but want to do a couple of smaller boutique hotel. These would be much less of a full-service accommodation.” Mr Silverstein said they expected to break ground late next year.

A 290-hectare (720 acres) property on Playa Pelícano, between Playas Conchal and Tamarindo, will be the site of a Canyon Ranch and Spa --- a group which began in 1979 with a health resort in the foothills of Tucson, Arizona.

The global financial giant, Lehman Brothers is reported to be behind the deal, which includes an 18-hole golf course designed by Gary Player.

But one of the most ambitious projects is that by the RIU Hotel Chain, a 53-year-old Spanish chain, which has bought 240 hectares (about 600 acres) fronting Matapalo in northern Guanacaste.

RIU paid an estimated $26 million for the land. Sources close to the deal say the group will build three hotels, with a total of up to 2000 rooms. They want to begin building this year.

Work on a Rosewood Hotel, to be built upon a 60-hectare (150-acre) property on Playa Guachipelín, is imminent.

The deal has been on the table for more than seven years, but it is now understood to have been signed, for beachfront property owned by Roger Hall, of Hallmark Properties, a developer out of California.

Certainly, a master plan of the area, cost analyses, and construction schedules are ready and waiting for the 80-room hotel, which will include 12 deluxe suites and one presidential suite.

Reserva Conchal, is also close to a deal for a second hotel, which would join the 308-room, all-inclusive, Paradisus Playa Conchal resort already on the property, in Brasilito.

The group has been in discussions for some time with several hotel chains, believed to be US-based, who might want to operate the five-star, 220 to 260-room hotel. It could be operational within 30 months.

“Eventually there will be a total of two resort hotels and two boutique hotels,” said Ana Saborío, Chief Executive Officer of Reserva Conchal.

“But to take a project from zero to fruition is like hell on earth,” she cautioned. “It is very difficult. A lot of these plans you hear about will remain as dreams.”

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The Hyatt Hotels and Resorts chain became the second major hotel group to confirm it was moving into Guanacaste, with the announcement this week of a 214-room resort and spa in Brasilito.

Phase one of what will be known as Hyatt Regency Azulera Resort and Spa will be built on 225 hectares (557 acres) just north of the town of Brasilito and will include an 18-hole, Greg Norman-designed golf course.

In what is described as a first for Costa Rica, the entire $100 million dollars for the first phase of construction will be funded by four Costa Rican banks in a deal brokered by the New Jersey-based, Global Financial Group.

However the entire project, built over five to seven years and including the resort, 100 condominiums, up to 240 villas around the golf course, an unspecified number of single dwelling homes, a spa, gymnasium, six restaurants, a banquet room seating 350, various salt and fresh water swimming pools and a commercial centre, is likely to cost closer to $200 million.

In announcing the project, the president of Global Financial Group, Anil C. Kothari, said: "We have put together an ideal team of designers, architects and reception companies whose portfolios including some of the most renowned tourist destinations and golf courses in the World."

Construction on the hotel and golf course, expected to eventually create 2000 to 2500 jobs, will begin in July this year and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2008. An environmental impact study and other key permits have already been approved.

Patrick Burke, from the architectural firm Michael Graves and Associates, said the resort would be built on two parcels of land, one along the beachfront opposite Isla Loros, and another higher up the mountain and with a view of both Brasilito and Flamingo Bays. The two parcels are split by the road known as route 155.

However, it is understood the Global Financial Group had to negotiate several purchases about 18 months ago, to get all the land they needed.

"It needs to be understood that this project will not be behind walls," said Mr Burke at a lavish San Jose press conference attended by amongst others, the Minister of Tourism and the US Ambassador to Costa Rica.

"We really want it to be part of the community, and in fact we intend to provide some services to the community," Mr Burke said.

Those services will include a medical center, police station and gasoline station. A commercial center, also open to both resort guests and the general public, will be built between the hotel and Brasilito main square.

While Michael Graves and Associates, the Princeton, New Jersey-based architectural firm, designed the complex, which will be no more than two stories high, the construction will be undertaken by Ronald Zurcher and Associates, which designed The Four Seasons in Peninsula Papagayo.

"We are very much aware of the fragility of this area and we intend to build with that in mind," Mr Zurcher said, estimating that without the golf course, only about 20 per cent of the total land would be developed.

The property includes about 155 meters of beachfront, part of which is under concession. The resort itself will occupy 47 acres, which the architects say will be built from wood, natural stone and include pitched roofs.

Mr Zurcher said they were still studying what jobs might be required and which of those could be filled locally. Members of a clearly delighted Municipality of Santa Cruz were also at the announcement.

"We have only had preliminary meetings with the developers, and this was the first opportunity we had to really learn about what they are doing," said the Mayor of Santa Cruz, Pastor Gomez Ruiz.

"This is a very important project for our region," he said, adding they expected to schedule more detailed meetings with the developers in the next few weeks.

The Hyatt Regency Azulera Resort and Spa becomes the second high-end hotel to announce its entry into Guanacaste. Hacienda Pinilla, the sprawling 1,820-hectare beach and golf resort community announced last year it had done a deal with the El Salvador-based Grupo Poma conglomerate, to build a five-star, 180-room, JW Marriott resort on their property.

The Salvadorans also expect to break ground in the next couple of months on the first phase, probably costing about $45 million, and which is expected to be completed by the end of 2007.

However, developers are known to be in discussions with at least ten major hotel chains who want to build high-end accommodation on beachfront land along the northern Pacific coast.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, the Hilton Hotels Corporation, Regent International Hotels, the Starwood Group's St. Regis Hotels, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, Aman Resorts International and the JW Marriott are all vying for beachfront land.

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At Least Ten Groups In Talks Over Beach-Front Land Deals

Developers are in discussions with at least ten major hotel chains who want to build high-end accommodation on beachfront land along the northern Pacific coast.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, the Hilton Hotels Corporation, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, Regent International Hotels, the Starwood Group's St. Regis Hotels, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts, Aman Resorts International and the JW Marriott are all vying for beachfront land.

Most are planning up-market, five-star, hotels and resorts, which would relieve the region's room shortage and create thousands of jobs.

Their entry into what is now the number one tourist destination in Costa Rica is a complex one, with developers courting the various brand names with ocean view land packages and construction costs, while for their part, the hotels want management contracts and a percentage of the room occupancies.

And they don't want to pay for it.

"The hotels all want to come to Guanacaste but they are only willing to come if someone pays for their arrival," said one hotel insider this week. "And the problem is that for many the arrival has not yet been arranged."

Ignoring the price of land, construction costs for an average-size hotel of say 150 rooms is likely to be about $35 to $50 million. Generally the hotels are only willing to invest one to two million dollars of that, or somewhere between two and five per cent.

They will lend their brand to the construction, but want two things in return.

"First, they want income from rooms and they will look to take between three to five per cent of the room rate," the industry source told The Beach Times. "And they will be looking for a management fee, which is invariably a percentage of gross operating profit."

Most hotels would look to take between seven and 14 per cent of GOP, which simply put is the profit on an operation before deducting indirect costs like salaries, taxation, interest and depreciation.

The rush to build hotels is partly driven by the tourist boom in Costa Rica -- the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT), says 1.6 million foreign tourists came here in 2005, generating about $1.589 billion -- but also because the hotel business can be a lucrative one.

"Hotels are a good investment in this market," said one hotel manager. "You can expect to repay your investment in three years."

Both hotel chains and developers remain tight-lipped about who is doing what. And because of their complexity most deals are still being discussed under so-called Letters of Intent.

However, Hacienda Pinilla, the sprawling 1,820-hectare beach and golf resort community announced last year it had done a deal with the El Salvador-based Grupo Poma conglomerate, to build a five-star, 180-room, JW Marriott resort on their property.

Developers will break ground within three months, and the first phase, probably costing about $45 million, is expected to be completed by the end of 2007.

Further, last weekend, president-elect Óscar Arias, on tour in Liberia and Nicoya confirmed the long-held belief that a Hyatt Hotel would be built in Brasilito. Dr Arias said he had met with foreign investors who were prepared to spend $100 million on the project.

Jamie Izaks, corporate public relations officer for Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, would make no comment on the project, but a lawyer close to the deal said the hotel would be built on the northern end of Brasilito's Bay. A developer in the area said it was no secret representatives for the Hyatt had been trying to buy up additional land from the small barrio, known as El Precario.

Many of these hotels will look to include PGA-designed golf courses, which while generally considered loss-makers on their own, tend to fill hotel rooms, and sell surrounding real estate.

The Australian golf champion, Greg Norman, who has designed 52 golf courses in 13 countries and has another 40 projects in the pipeline, was in Brasilito last week. The problem he and other designers will face is that an 18-hole golf course needs at least 100 hectares (or 250 acres) .

One of the worst kept secrets in Costa Rica is the impending presence of a Rosewood Hotel, on a 60-hectare (150-hectare) property on Playa Guachipelin.

The deal has been on the table for more than six years, but is now understood to be signed, for beachfront property owned by Roger Hall, of Hallmark Properties, a developer out of California.

Certainly, a master plan of the area, cost analyses, and construction schedules are ready and waiting for the 80-room hotel, which will include 12 deluxe suites and one presidential suite. The project was to have been two phases, but will now go ahead as one, and include an additional 60 villas of two, three and four bedrooms. There will be a further 20 estate lots plus a spa and a fitness center.

Like other hotels, Rosewood Hotels and Resorts do not comment on deals until they are finalized.

But I can say that we are and have been actively looking at Costa Rica for some time and are in discussions with developers of a very attractive project in Guanacaste," said Cate Veatch, manager for corporate public relations.

Desarrollos Hoteleros Guanacaste, S.A, the parent company of the Playa Conchal resort and golf course development, says they too will add a second hotel, probably beginning mid-2007. It would join the 308-room, all-inclusive, Paradisus Playa Conchal resort already on the property.

The group has been in discussions for some time with several hotel chains, believed to be US-based, who might want to operate the five-star, 220 to 260-room hotel. It could be operational within 30 months.

Further, and it is probably another four years away, DHG will develop Los Altos, a small outcrop of land overlooking Playa Conchal from the south. Here will be a six-star, 70-room, boutique hotel, high-priced condominiums, duplexes and villas all overlooking an isolated beach whose only access will be by boat.

One of the more attractive hotel sites remains the Gulf of Papagayo, where Ecodesarrollo Papagayo S.A., manages an 840-hectare (about 2000 acre) concession on the northern Pacific coast. Their 28-year-development plan will eventually include a total of nine hotels.

However, under the contract between the existing 223-room, five-star luxury Four Seasons Hotel, and Ecodesarrollo Papagayo S.A., for the first five years the hotel gets the right of veto over any new neighbors. In fact, a list of competitors is part of the contract.

In the past 12 months developers have reportedly, and unsuccessfully, tried to introduce both the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and Aman Resorts International to the Peninsula.

"The Aman group wanted to come into Ecodesarrollo Papagayo, but they were not offering anything new," said one source, who is familiar with the concession.

Aman Resorts International is said to be still looking, while the Ritz-Carlton is reported to have turned to Steve Case, Chairman of Exclusive Resorts, Co-Founder of America Online, Director of Case Foundation and owner and Chairman of Revolution LLC.

Last year, Mr Case bought 216 hectares (about 535 acres) of land in Playa Hermosa for a reported $42 million. Canadian developer Michael Ryan sold him Punto del Cacique, plus some additional land across the main road, as well as a semi-complete, 18-hole golf course.

Representatives of Mr Case's Revolution LLC, which he formed in April of 2005, plus the Ritz-Carlton visited the area two weeks ago.

Vivian Deuschl, corporate vice-president for public relations for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC said her group looked at "hundreds of possible development sites around the World and we don't comment until we have a signed contract."

"However, Central America and the Caribbean is very attractive to us and to our customers," Ms Deuschl said.

Mr Case's Exclusive Resort Properties is also reported to have an option on three of the four completed houses within Ecodesarrollo Papagayo, worth $4 million each. The deal is not signed, but representatives of the company already inhabit the properties. Exclusive Resorts has also paid up to $1.5 million for each of six additional building lots in the same area.

Regent International Hotels are confirmed as speaking to developers about a plot of ocean-view land within a stone's throw of Ecodesarrollo Papagayo. Carlson Hospitality Worldwide acquired Regent International Hotels from Four Seasons Hotels in November 1997.

Just south of Mr Case's Punto del Cacique and Playas del Coco, is 242 hectares (about 600 acres) fronting Playa Guacamaya, recently purchased by the Baltimore, Maryland-based Union Box company for a reported $11 million.

The developers, who have access to both Guacamaya and Zapotal Beaches, have an option on a further 405 hectares (1000 acres) in the Zapotal Valley.

"Right now we seem to be in the same boat as many developers -- trying to decide on a hotel and the right one," said a company representative. "I do know that our area is on the radar of every major hotel that we talk to, but not many deals have been made yet."

Part of the problem is a perennial one -- Guanacaste's failing infrastructure. It is difficult to convince investors to part with millions of dollars when the roads are virtually impassable. Some developers are showing land by helicopter to get around the problem.

Others are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, to build or repair their own infrastructure, rather than wait for the national government, which history shows them will either arrive late, or not at all.

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THE Liberia airport, Costa Rica's new international hub, is not precisely a beacon of modern transportation. The terminal consists of an open-air warehouse with a corrugated tin roof, cooled by an enormous fan whose main effect is to stir the grasshoppers into a frenzy. In the line for customs, visitors are kept company by butterflies and the occasional blasé frog. Before visitors even leave the tarmac, though, smiling representatives from the local Chamber of Tourism are there to greet their out-of-town guests, most of whom have just arrived on the new direct three-hour flights from Atlanta, Miami and Houston. They press the real estate guide "Costa Rica Traveler" into newcomers' hands. In its pages, American visitors can find ads for dozens of different developments that will happily sell them a villa with an ocean view.

For decades the remote Pacific Coast of northern Costa Rica - the Guanacaste province - was the domain of die-hard surfers and backpackers, with other visitors deterred by the grueling five-hour drive from the country's main airport in San José. But in the last few years, Guanacaste has been transformed by a collection of hotels and real estate developments aimed at America's affluent baby boomers.

All up and down the coast, bulldozers are at work. Three major developments, including a project anchored by a Four Seasons hotel, are already selling luxury condominiums for $500,000 and up, and hundreds of smaller, more speculative endeavors are also breaking ground. The airport in Liberia, the capital of Guanacaste, is at the center of the transformation. Three years ago, when the first direct flights from the United States landed, only 50,000 people a year arrived there. In 2005, 300,000 did.

In the airport lines, Americans talk in urgent tones about the money to be made, about "Wild West" opportunities. Never mind that Guanacaste is still a region of cattle ranchers and rutted roads. The new homesteaders envision a beach, golf and spa destination equal to the Puerto Vallarta corridor in Mexico or Wailea Beach on Maui - without, so far at least, the high-rise blight. The area's promoters have taken to calling it the new Gold Coast.

"It's hard for me to look at all this change - you're used to how uncluttered it was," said Chris Mailloux, a ReMax agent whose family has been selling real estate in the area for 13 years. In one abbreviated block near his office, in the tiny fishing village of Playa Hermosa, eight developments of at least 20 homes each are under construction: "Lots that were once $50,000 are now $500,000," he said. "There's not a lot left that hasn't quadrupled in value in the last three years."

Or, as Brad Schmidt, a local builder and an American expatriate in Costa Rica for 10 years, put it, "It's like fishing behind a tuna boat during a feeding frenzy."

HISTORICALLY, the smattering of vacation homes in Central America were mostly bargain-basement retirement houses built by older expats. A gradual identity shift began when the Central American peace accord of 1987 curbed regional political instabilities, and now it has accelerated. Vacation home developments, often financed by American investors, are going up not only in Costa Rica, which has led the trend, but in Panama, Honduras, Belize and Nicaragua. American buyers are drawn to the cheap prices for oceanfront real estate on previously undeveloped land.

"The image problem doesn't exist anymore," said Roger Gallo, founder of EscapeArtist.com, a newsletter for Americans that focuses on Central and South America. "There's more money to be made in foreign real estate because the prices are lower with more growth potential."

Costa Rica has the advantages of an active tourism board and a reputation as peaceful and environmentally friendly. It also has the longest tradition of democracy in Latin America.

Bill Royster, the developer behind the luxurious Sueños resort south of Guanacaste on the Pacific near the town of Jacó, said that because foreigners are allowed to own land directly, rather than through the bank-trust leases required in some Mexican property deals. "No one is going to expropriate your property," he said.

And what about that property? In Guanacaste, the jungle runs straight from the volcanoes to the sea, where it overlooks a warm azure ocean from 200-foot bluffs. Armadillos, howler monkeys, small raccoon-like pizote, parrots and the occasional jaguar make their homes underneath the broad leaves of the mango and palm trees. The foliage grows up to 10 feet a year, though in the "gold season" - a flattering term for the dry months of December through April - most trees lose their leaves, leaving the landscape barren.

Until the developers began arriving with suitcases of cash, Guanacaste was mostly the domain of cowboys called sabaneros, whose legacy lingers at local rodeos. Roads must be shared with herds of ambling cattle and are often so potholed that local people drive on the ground along the side. Yet strung all along them are signs, all in English, advertising million-dollar villas. "It's fairly easy to develop in Costa Rica; you have a good work force at extremely cheap prices," said William Knickman, a New Jersey developer who, with a group of friends, snapped up land in Guanacaste, formed a company called Costa Rica Lifestyle Development and is now selling lots for up to $300,000 apiece. "And it's hot, very hot, as a place for people to buy. It's booming right now."

The boom can be traced back to the 2,300-acre, $400 million Península Papagayo project, indisputably the most luxurious development on the coast. It lies on land that was set aside for tourism by the Costa Rican government in the late 1970's but remained uninterrupted jungle until 1997, when Alan Kelso, a Costa Rican developer, got American financing and broke ground. Península Papagayo has a Four Seasons resort and is expected to include three more hotels and more than 1,000 luxury homes, although, at the moment, only 44 houses and condos have been built. (They're selling for $2 million to $12 million.)

"We put the region on the map," Mr. Kelso said as he sat in Península Papagayo's command center, a facility peppered with satellite dishes. He also plans a marina, a polo field and, of course, the requisite three brand-name golf courses. "The whole challenge is to create a luxury market in a country that doesn't have a culture of service," he said. "We're trying to make it a high-end happening."

To shield their patrons from pitted roads and electrical blackouts, developers have paid for their own infrastructure. Grupo Mapache, a Costa Rican developer that is building more than 20,000 low-priced condos in the Guanacaste area, has spent $2.5 million on roads and sewers. Península Papagayo has not only paid for its roads, sewers, buses and electricity but has even set up its own paramedics and fire brigade.

"We sell 'Costa Rica Lite': all of the upside with none of the downside," said Jeff Klein, a sales agent for the Papagayo project. "We're our own municipality."

The owners of Península Papagayo and two other high-end developments, Hacienda Pinilla and Reserva Conchal, even paid for that critical airport in Liberia, putting up $3 million of their own money in 2002 as a guarantee to persuade Delta to start direct flights. Continental and American followed. EARLIER efforts to develop Guanacaste were mostly underfinanced. On a road near the town of Playa del Coco hulks the moldering 20-foot-tall concrete gate of Cacique del Mar, all that was built of a 500-acre development planned in the 1990's. Even this forlorn property has since had a change in fortune. Stephen M. Case, former chairman of AOL Time Warner, bought it in 2005, and Guanacaste is buzzing with rumors about what he plans to build on it.

At Hacienda Pinilla, hundreds of condominiums and villas are being built around 4,500 acres of nature preserve by the Atlanta-based owner, Hoover Gordon Pattillo, who bought the land as a family vacation homestead 30 years ago. Visitors to Mr. Pattillo's modest ranch, tucked inside a tree-lined grove, are greeted with a tequila-laced lemonade and a perch on a rocking chair overlooking the sunset.

"It was destiny," he said. "I had no idea what I was going to do with the land. We'd come down once a year and stay in the old farmhouse, which had no electricity or running water." In the late 1990's he began developing home sites. "We really had to work hard to sell those first villas," he said. Things have changed. Over two weeks last year, Hacienda Pinilla sold 43 Spanish colonial condomiums for $580,000 and up without any advertising. The Costa Rica rush can carry hazards for the unwary. Jeff Hornberger, the international market development manager for the National Association of Realtors, cautioned that Americans buying in Costa Rica should be sure to buy title insurance and should be aware that real estate agents aren't required to be licensed there. "Ninety-five percent of the time we don't hear about people having problems," he said, but sometimes Americans "come on vacation and get overwhelmed and leave their brains at the border." Many Americans who are buying now are looking for investments, eager to get in on the boom. But others simply love Costa Rica, with its warm seas and unspoiled jungle landscapes.

"This is my garden; look at this!" Jean Capezza, 59, said as she gazed down over the jungle to the sea from her perch at Reserva Conchal, an upscale golf-course-anchored development of 2,300 acres that will eventually have several hundred homes selling for $500,000 to $2 million each. Ms. Capezza, a retired administrator for Verizon in Boston, and her husband, Tony, 63, a retired public school administrator, bought a Mediterranean-style four bedroom condominium in early 2004 and spend seven months a year there. Their house has already nearly doubled in value, but the downside of the real estate demand is the incessant grind of bulldozers nearby. The Capezzas fear more flights landing in Liberia, new condos up the hill, even the appearance of a Burger King in the nearby town of Tamarindo. "If we wanted the roads of Florida, we'd be in Florida," Ms. Capezza said. "We hope progress comes slowly. Very slowly."

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Besides its regular daily service
Announces its new flight
On Saturdays.

LIBERIA - ATLANTA

CITY	FLIGHT #	DEPARTS	ARRIVES
LIBERIA	DL692	8:00AM	12:50PM

For more information call your Travel Agent or contact us
www.delta.com
delta_air­_cr@racsa.co.cr
Toll Free: 0800 056 2002

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Monday
AMERICAN AIRLINES	B-737-800	12:06 L. T.	MIAMI	13:20 L. T.	MIAMI	13/06/05 AL INDEFIN
CONTINENTAL AIRL	B-737-800	12:09 L. T.	HOUSTON	13:10 L. T.	HOUSTON	13/06/05 AL 05/09/05
DELTA AIR LINES	B-757-200	12:44 L. T.	ATLANTA	14:04 L. T.	ATLANTA	04/04/05 AL INDEFIN
SKY SERVICE	A320					11/05 - 04-06
SKY SEVICE	A320					12/05-04/06

Tuesday
AMERICAN AIRLINES	B-737-800	12:06 L. T.	MIAMI	13:20 L. T.	MIAMI	12/05-04/06
US AIRWAYS	A-319		CHARLOTTE	12:25 L. T.	CHARLOTTE	07/06/05 AL 30/08/05
	B-737-800	12:09 L. T.	HOUSTON	13:10 L. T.	HOUSTON	14/06/05 AL 06/09/05
DELTA AIRLINES.	B-737-800	12:44 L. T.	ATLANTA	14:04 L. T.	ATLANTA	05/04/05 AL INDEFIN.
SKY SERVICE	A320	12:05	TORONTO	12:55	TORONTO	12/05-04/06

Wednesday
AMERICAN AIRLINES	B-737-800	12:06 L. T.	MIAMI	13:20 L. T.	MIAMI	12/05-04/06
CONTINENTAL	B-737-800	12:09 L. T.	HOUSTON	13:10 L. T.	HOUSTON	15/06/05 AL 07/09/05
SKYSERVICE	A320	17:30	TORONTO	18:30	TORONTO	12/05-04/06
DELTA AIRLINES.	B-737-800	12:44 L. T.	ATLANTA	14:04 L. T.	ATLANTA	06/04/05 AL INDEFIN.
SKY SERVICE		12:30	TORONTO	13:30	TORONTO	12/05-04/06
UNITED	B-737-700		CHICAGO			1-Nov-05

Thursday
US AIRWAYS	A-319	11:33 L. T.	CHARLOTTE	12:25 L. T.	CHARLOTTE	09/06/05 AL 25/08/05
AMERICAN AIRL.	B-737-800	12:06 L. T.		13:20 L. T.	MIAMI	12/05-04/06
CONTINENTAL AIR	B-737-800	12:09 L. T.	HOUSTON	13:10 L. T.	HOUSTON	09/06/05 AL 08/09/05
DELTA AIRLINES.	B-737-800	12:44 L. T.	ATLANTA	14:04 L. T.	ATLANTA	07/04/05 AL INDEFIN.
AMERICAN AIRL.	B-737-800	12:06 L. T.	DALLAS	13:20 L. T.	DALLAS	12/05-

Friday
CONTINENTAL	B-737-800	12:09 L. T.	HOUSTON	13:10 L. T.	HOUSTON	10/06/05 AL 09/09/05
DELTA AIRL.	B-737-800	12:44 L. T.	ATLANTA	14:04 L. T.	ATLANTA	01/04/05 AL INDEFIN
AMERICAN AIRL.	B-737-800	12:06 L. T.	MIAMI	13:20 L. T.	MIAMI	09/06/05 AL INDEFIN.
SKYSERVICE	A-320		TORONTO		TORONTO	12/05-04/06
AMERICAN AIRL.	B-737-800	12:06 L. T.	DALLAS	13:20 L. T.	DALLAS	12/05-

Saturday
US AIRWAYS	A-319	11:30 L. T.	CHARLOTTE	12:25 L. T.	CHARLOTTE	11/06/05 AL INDEFIN
CONTINENTAL	B-737-700	12:03 L .T.	HOUSTON	13:00 L. T.	HOUSTON	11/06/05 AL 06/09/05
AMERICAN	B-737-800	12:06 L. T.	MIAMI	13:20 L. T.	MIAMI	11/06/05 AL INDEFIN
TRANSMERIDIAN	MD-82	12:15:LT.	SANDFORD	13:15 L. T.	SANDFORD	02/04/05 AL INDEFIN
DELTA	B-757-200	12:44 L. T.	ATLANTA	14:04 L. T.	ATLANTA	02/04/05 AL INDEFIN
NORTHWEST		12:30	MINEAPOLIS	13:17	MINEAPOLIS	12/05-04/06
AIR CANADA		14:00	TORONTO	15:00	TORONTO	12/05-04/06
CONTINENTAL	B-737-300	12:20	NEWARK	13:20	NEWARK	12/05-04/06
UNITED	B-737-700		CHICAGO			1-Nov-05

Sunday
CONTINENTAL	B-737-300	12:20	NEWARK	13:20	NEWARK	12/05-04/06
US AIRWAYS	A-319	11:33 L. T.		12:25 L. T.	CHARLOTTE	01/05/05 AL 28/08/05
CONTINENTAL		12:03 L. T.	HOUSTON	13:00 L. T.	HOUSTON	12/06/05 AL 04/09/05
DELTA		12:44 L. T.	ATLANTA	14:04 L. T.	ATLANTA	03/04/05 AL INDEFIN
AMERICAN	B-737-800	12:06 L. T.	MIAMI	13:20 L. T.	MIAMI	12/05-04/06
KELLOWNA		13:00		14:00		12/05-04/06
AMERICAN AIRL.	B-737-800	12:06 L. T.	DALLAS	13:20 L. T.	DALLAS	12/05-

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Second homes sales accounted for 36% of all U.S. residential sales in 2004, according to NAR's 2005 Profile of Second-Home Buyers. According to NAR Chief Economist David Lereah, the overall market should be very healthy for the next 5 to 10 years, and "by and large, the second-home market is healthier than the primary-home market." More than 10% of NAR members specialize in this niche, prompting the Jan. '06 launch of new NAR certification: Resort & Second-Home Property Specialist (RSPS).

Fueling this market are baby boomers with equity in their primary residences; demand from foreign buyers; and easier financing. Although the distance between a buyer's primary residence and second home is typically relatively small, this data fails to tell the whole story. A growing number of foreign buyers are taking advantage of a weaker dollar, and U.S. buyers find the dollar buys more in Latin America and Eastern Europe. Ron Acker, CIPS, cited in the Dec. 4 Charleston Post & Courier (S.C.) said that in his Orlando, Fla. market, British buyers spend $200K to $400K for houses, renting them out 11 months of the year or more to other Britons. The U.S. has growing competition for these buyers. Panama and Costa Rica are trying to lure British second-home investors from Florida. Acker noted these groups were well-represented at the NAR convention, looking to set up cooperative deals with agents from the U.K. and U.S. On the outbound side, Mexico is the biggest draw for Americans because, according to AARP magazine, "for $600 a month, retirees can live in a three-bedroom home with a gardener."

Effectively handling the foreign second home market takes an understanding of the cultural nuances of other markets. "When the second home can be as near as 50 miles or as far away as 5,000 from the primary residence, knowing the market is critical to an agent's success, said resort specialist Maire Rosol, CIPS, of Park City, Utah, who was also quoted in the Post & Courier article. Access more information on the resort and second home market.

Report compiled by NAR International Operations

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Airlines announced last week it was introducing another direct, weekly flight between Newark, New Jersey and Liberia's Daniel Oduber International Airport.

The Saturday flight will begin December 17 and adds to Continental's existing daily non-stop service from Houston to Liberia.

The new flight will take-off from Newark at 8-45 am and arrive in Liberia at 1-00pm. The return flight will depart Liberia 50 minutes later and arrive Newark in just before 8-00pm. The airline will use a Boeing 737-700 with a passenger capacity of about 125.

Delta Airlines continues to be the biggest carrier into Daniel Oduber Airport, last month ferrying 7607 passengers between the US and Guanacaste. However, Continental Airlines, the World sixth biggest airline, returned to daily flights last month and the number of passengers the airline carried in June, doubled, to 6250. American Airlines remained steady with 2763 passengers.

Aviation officials say 22,370 passengers came through the airport in June, 40 per cent more than the same period last year. While the figure was short of the 25,000 passengers officials were estimating, they say they still expect 310,000 passengers will come through the airport by the end of the year.

If that happens it will mean the airport use has increased about 60 per cent in just 12 months.

There are currently 42 direct flights from North American to Liberia every week, including eight chartered flights. Saturday is the busiest day with nine arrivals.

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