Costa Rica Real Estate - Two Luxury Resorts Planned on Pacific Coast

Costa Rica Guanacaste

Come 2008, Costa Rica will be home to two new luxury resorts, hundreds of additional hotel rooms, and thousands of new jobs, if projects announced this month by two international hotel chains go as planned.

The development landscape of Guanacaste changed significantly last week when Hyatt Hotels and Resorts announced plans to build a 557-acre resort – complete with a 214-room, 100-condominium hotel, an 18-hole golf course designed by Greg Norman and more than 1,000 residential units – in the northwestern province. The first phase of construction, expected to last two years and require an investment of $100 million, will begin in July; the entire project is expected to be completed in five to seven years.

Meanwhile, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and Costa Rican development firm Grupo Genesis announced plans this week to build a new hotel, St. Regis Resort, on the Central Pacific coast. The resort will feature 133 rooms, a dramatic cliff-top presidential suite, a spa and residences, according to a statement from Starwood Hotels.

News of the two developments came just days after President Oscar Arias and Tourism Minister Carlos Benavides called for renewed nationwide efforts to strengthen Costa Rica’s tourism industry and make the country an attractive option for foreign investment (TT, May 19). When Arias arrived at the Hotel Real Intercontinental May 11 for the swanky Hyatt launch event, he said the international company’s impending arrival makes it still more important for the government to improve infrastructure in Guanacaste and throughout the country.

“This fills us with happiness on the one hand and concerns on the other,” Arias said as he arrived at the Intercontinental. He added that the Hyatt’s Azulera will heighten the need for significant attention to the Daniel Oduber International Airport in Liberia, Guanacaste’s capital.