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Costa Rica's Tamarindo Focus on Environment

Homes in The Oaks project conserves Costa Rica's water

Marty Hope, CanWest News Service

The Oaks Tamarindo is more than just a pretty Costa Rican face. Sure, it has everything you'd envision from a Central American recreational development -- sand, sea, warmth and charm -- but one key element of this multi-phase project is the care and attention paid to the environment.

It is a 12-hectare environmentally planned condominium project with a nature reserve that is being developed by Green Seal Realty and its principal, Robert Irvin. It is located at Tamarindo Bay in the province of Guanacaste, on Costa Rica's northwest Pacific coast.

It is a 45-minute drive from the international airport at Liberia and up to a five-hour drive from the capital city of San Jose on paved roads.

Irvin, who in another life was a real estate attorney and banker in Florida, has lived in Costa Rica for the past three years. He has come to understand some of the environmental sensitivities related to protecting nature while developing recreational projects in the Guanacaste region.

"There are many critical challenges -- water quality, climate change, human pressure on animal habitats and soil erosion, to name a few," he says. "However, the number-1 issue in the booming northwest of Costa Rica has to be water conservation and quality."

To ensure water quality, The Oaks Tamarindo has built its own water-treatment facility that includes a final filtration and disinfection process as part of the tertiary water treatment system.

The homes at The Oaks Tamarindo use front-loading clothes washers and low-flush toilets in an effort to reduce the amount of water being used daily. Along with his architectural and engineering team members, Irvin added an outdoor Vita (exercise) course, chlorine- and salt-free swimming pools, and rainwater and groundwater capture systems for saving water in the rainy season for use in the dry season.

Future plans include incorporating biological corridors to allow free movement by howler monkeys from one feeding area to another.
There will also be a botanical tropical garden, an aviary, a butterfly farm and an orchid farm. A scientific station is to be dedicated to a non-profit association for sustainable development.

The Oaks project started four years ago. The 96 units making up the first two phases have been sold out. Phase 3 consists of eight single-family homes on two hectares of land. The homes will measure from 5,000 to 6,000 square feet and are priced from $700,000 to $1 million Cdn, with one of the homes being designed as a six-bedroom guest house.

The fourth phase, which will start next summer, consists of 100 condominium units in a mid-rise building. About 70 units will measure about 1,500 square feet with three bedrooms, three baths, private elevator and balcony. Ten others will be two-level units with about 1,800 square feet of living space -- four of them with ocean views. The remainder are 740-square-foot, one-bedroom units.

Prices will range between $140,000 and $160,000 for the one-bedroom units, $260,000 to $360,000 for three-bedroom suites and about $450,000 for penthouse suites with ocean views.