I can remember when I first moved to Costa Rica 7 years ago, one of the things I often overheard people saying that were considering Costa Rica was “Yes Costa Rica is interesting from an investing standpoint, but the problem is there’s no Infrastructure.” Infrastructure seemed to be the hot word of the day when talking about Costa Rica, people just seemed to love rolling it off their tongue, and you heard it everywhere. Bottom line is it started to become overused. However they were right, roads were in miserable condition many of today’s popular beaches like playa Grande and others were inaccessible during the rainy season. Main roads were full of dreadful potholes making travel within the country challenging. The new international airport in Liberia was handling three new international carrier flights per week and this was taxing. Hospital and doctor facilities were bare to nonexistent in the beach areas, materials for building were scarce and prohibitively expensive. I often heard Tourists muttering under their breath about never coming back, mainly because of the roads. Guanacaste was really quite primitive.
One of the big considerations in my move to the Flamingo, Tamarindo area was my research which found that Real Estate within a 40 mile radius of an international airport is over time the best performing real estate demographic there is. My thinking was like this “Ok here we have a new international airport, and across the street, here we have cows grazing. Looked like ground floor to me.
The point of this piece is that infrastructure has become a hot topic once again however this time in a very positive light and it has broad sweeping ramifications for the future of Costa Rica and for our scope of vision today; Guanacaste.

The biggest news for the future of tourism and development in the beach areas of Guanacaste are several projects that are aimed atrevolve around and include Grupo Do It, the well known developers behind the Do It Center in Liberia. Hospital Cima broke ground on November 2nd after many delays on a $160 million dollar project that includes 42 spaces for private clinics and other retail outlets. A grand total of 220,000 square meters will be developed in stages over a period of several years. The hospital will be located at the entrance of a housing development called Pacific Plaza, adjacent to the Do-it Center, designed to be a place that specializes in integrated health services to a retirement community. Above left is the rendered view of the completed project.

A similar project proposed by Clinica Biblica in association with Sun Ranch retirement community (another Grupo Do It offshoot) includes some 50 acres destined for the state of the art Clinica Biblica Hospital with assisted living and long term care, including 200 rooms, with one wing specially designed for after care / post operative recovery. This project is far reaching in scope and also includes Casino, restaurants, and a convention center., also 15 acres for a branded medical/hotel Spa, wellness center, pools and other first class amenities and lastly 500 acres for the Robert Trent Jones Jr. designed championship golf course with luxury hotels and residential development. While this project appears to currently be on hold according to Sun Ranch the project is still a go.

So what does it all mean for Costa rica and specifically Guanacaste?

The central valley is ahead of most parts of the country in regards to infrastructural development Rebecca Clower of Blue Water Properties of Costa Rica in Northern Guanacaste welcomes the construction of a multimillion dollar annex to Hospital Cima in San Jose. “Bringing modern medical facilities to this area coupled with the major expansion of the Daniel Obuder International Airport close by and couple this with the great job the government has been doing on public road system of late, changes the whole picture for Guanacaste Real Estate. Our last big boom cycle here were vacation and second home owners using equity lines of credit. Now we are seeing a different type of client; people who are looking for a dream that is no longer affordable in the U.S. This is leading to a more stable and sustainable growth pattern here in Guanacaste and the beach area in general. New roads have opened up areas here that were not accessible before and today a spectacular ocean view lot can once again be had for under 100k.
Costa Rica has weathered some boom and bust cycles but is finally gearing up to retain the honor of being the top destination in Central America. An intelligent eye to infrastructure, private investment in hospitals and other infrastructure projects has brought this country a very long way in ten years. Couple that with equilibrium of sorts on Real Estate prices and Costa Rica becomes an excellent possibility for people considering an alternative, more affordable lifestyle. Infrastructure is finally gaining ground in Costa Rica.