Posted by Steve Linder on Sun, Aug 22, 2010
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Many of you may realize that last week International Living held an event at the San Jose Marriott "Live and Invest in Costa Rica". As the sponsor for the event, we provided the entire conference with an opening cocktail reception with open bar and appetizers. I also gave a presentation during the event about our project in Costa Rica and we had a booth in the exhibit room. The Marriott is a beautiful hotel and the conference center is equally as nice. The event was attended by over 200 people.
These shows take a lot out of you. You have to arrive in the exhibit room before 8:00 am and are typically there until well after 7:00 pm. Fortunately Patrick came and worked the event with me.
To further compound the challenge of the event, Kristina and I had booked four Discovery property tours to coincide with the event. The first scheduled for August 6-9 was booked with 21 people. For those of you who have been to the guest house, you realize we can't fit 21 people at the guest house. We booked the entire Buena Vista Hotel for the overflow, as well as the guest house. We had to use a 28 passenger Coaster Bus to move the group from San Jose and back. Even with the new Caldera and Costanera highway, this big bus would be much slower than our normal tourist vans. I also had to transport those clients at the Buena Vista to and from the guest house each day since all our meals would be served at the guest house. I have already received a great deal of praise from those on the tours, how great the time was, how wonderful the project is and how good that food was. The weather cooperated well except that on the third tour, we did have some early rain on the day we were visiting the properties. It is hard to appreciate a great ocean view when all you could see was clouds reflecting off the ocean.
The event at the Marriott ran August 11-13. On the morning of the 14th we headed south again with another 21 people for the tour. On the 16th, another group came down in the same bus that would take the group back to San Jose that was already there. On the 18th another group came down as the third group was leaving. All in all the tours went smoothly, Mayca (our chef) did a great job preparing meals for 25 people each day on the bigger tours. She prepared and plated 75 meals a day including her famous home made bread and french pastry desserts.
The highlight of these trips for me was that I sold the model home we have been using as a bathroom stop in phase 5. Many of you have visited this home, great ocean view, waterfall into the pool and fantastic landscape. We sold well over a million dollars in home sites over the 14 days and have a few more sales in negotiation. All in all I am glad it is over. Now only three more weeks until Kristina and I head to Las Vegas for the "Live and Invest Overseas" show that already had nearly 400 people signed up to attend. I am grateful that our project is so popular and things are only getting better each time I am there. Pacific Lots of Costa Rica was the most popular project at the event this time and continues to be the most successful single family real estate project in Costa Rica
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Posted by Steve Linder on Fri, Jun 25, 2010
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Last Sunday the new toll road from San Jose to the west coast was closed shortly before noon due to a number of issues with rocks in the road from the heavy rains. Although the company responsible for building the road, Autopista Del Sol, claims the road is fine, they have agreed to temporarily close one section of the road, between Orotina and Atenas, totaling about 12 miles. The missing section means you have to use the old "aguacate" highway through a stretch through the mountains. Though we have used this road for many years to reach our properties, our Discovery tour groups would prefer using the new highway rather than winding through the mountainous stretch we are again traveling, adding 45 minutes to our travel time.
The new highway was closed after a female motorcyclist struck a rock and was killed on the old road. The department of transporation then decided to close the road for repairs to the steeper sections subject to rock slides as the new road enters it's first rainy season. Had the road been built by the Costa Rican department of transportation, they would have simply cleared the road of debris after each rain and re-open it. Case in point is that there is a similar highway going to Limon on the eastern slope of Costa Rica that was built and maintained by the department of transportation. This road has numerous slides and was closed this past week when nearly three feet of stone and earth slid and blocked passage along one stretch of the highway. This stretch has had a number of slides in the same location yet the road is reopened each time after the debris is removed. We even had a small slide on the coastanera highway this past week but within less than a hour, the debris was removed and the road was as good as new. Small rock slides are to be expected in a country with four mountain ranges and steep road cuts through the mountains. Though the new highway is temporarily closed, demand for Costa Rica real estate in our developments is at an all time high.
I spoke to an employee of Autopista Del Sol, the Spanish company that created the new Caldera highway that is now closed, and they assured me that the road is not dangerous and that the road has been cleared and ready for travel for nearly two weeks now but they have agreed to close it at the request of President Laura Chinchilla. I was told that the government has requested a 2 month closure while the initial heavy rains frequently found at this time of year test the stability of the steep embankments that flank the new highway. In reality, the old aguacate highway which we are again using as an alternative is much more dangerous than the new Caldera highway even with occasional rocks sliding. Last week there was a fatal accident on the aguacate that took the lives of three. But politics sometimes outrank good sense. The new road is cleary the best highway in Costa Rica and it is the people of Costa Rica who are suffering without use of this great engineering achievement. Tourist sites, hotels, restaurants, realtors and developers are frustrated as the road closure has temporarily decreased traffic to the central and southern regions. Our discovery tours to view lots and real estate in our developments has so far not been affected. It does add a bit more time to our drive to the southern region in the interim. For more information about our developments and how to visit, lot prices, etc, see www.PacificLots.com. We offer the best Costa Rica real estate values in the country.
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Posted by Steve Linder on Wed, Jan 27, 2010
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Dreams of Highways - What was once a dream in the eyes of the administration of Rodrigo Carazo Odio, President of Costa Rica back in 1979 when the first plans for the Caldera Highway were conceived, is soon to become reality. Over 30 years ago the Caldera Highway project was initially planned. Work did not begin on the project for many more years, grinding to a halt about 10 years ago after it was discovered that the government had not yet expropriated all the land needed to build the road. About three years ago, President Oscar Arias got the project back on track.
Who's the Builder? - Autopistas Del Sol is now responsible for the design, build rehabilitation, maintenance and operation of the new Caldera - San Jose toll Road. Highways of the Sun is a consortium, a subsidiary of concessions Sacyr Vallehermoso, which has a 35% by FCC Construction, with another 35%, M & S DI-MS International Development (13%) and Soares da Costa ( 17%).
What and Why? - The 77 Kilometers, built at an estimated $238 million dollars, was financed by Autopistas Del Sol, a consortium based in Spain. The company agreed to complete the road in exchange of a 25 year, 6 month concession. This agreement allows the company to collect tolls on the road equivalent to 1120 colones (about $2 dollars) for the entire route. Here is the soon to open last stretch.
Pay us in Tolls - The first section to open was from San Jose to Cuidad Colon. When the first 310 colon toll collection started in Escazu, the opening resulted in traffic jams. Now frequent drivers on the road will be able to purchase a transponder pass, much like have been available in the US (Sunpass, EZpass, TollPass) to speed toll collection and limit traffic tie ups. There was a request to the Consejo Nacional to delay toll collection until the completion of additional work on the highway, which was rejected based on the long list of improvements that are already in place, including additional lanes in critical parts of the highway.
Illegal Entry - There have also been a number of "non sanctioned" entry points onto the new highway identified, especially in the Escazu and Santa Ana areas. After some were closed to traffic, access to some businesses was blocked, yet access roads are not yet available to replace these escapements. After some legal wrangling, access roads are now being built to deal with these issues.
Coastal Route Dream - The second completed section was from Orotina to Punteranas. This section will reduce traffic headed north on the Inter American highway since the new route from San Jose north will be faster than the old one. The last remaining section of roughly 40 kilometers, from Cuidad Colon to Orotina, is now open. it began operation on January 28th, 2010, 3 months ahead of schedule.
Autopista del Sol was authorized by the Consejo Nacional de Concesiones to begin collecting tolls on a newly renovated stretch of the Autopista Próspero Fernández between Parque La Sabana and Ciudad Colón, and now from Orotina to Caldera. Upon completion in March, the highway will go all the way from San Jose to Caldera on the Pacific coast. The road was designed to open San Jose to the port of Puntarenas. For drivers headed south, the road will cut roughly an hour off the current mountain route known as the Aguacate pass. This will bring the drive time from San Jose to Jaco to about an hour. The aguacate pass is a site of frequent accidents, weekend traffic back ups and occasional land slides. There are a number of single lane bridges along the route, numerous switch backs and grades to 10 degrees. Trucks along the pass frequently hold up traffic for miles and there are very few turn outs or passing zones along the route.
A few Mishaps - In building the new Autopista, a variety of mishaps have transpired. The Barva Aquifer was pierced at one point, a major water supply of the central valley. This stopped construction while repairs and a redesign was worked out. There was also an issue involving the negotiation of toll booths by police, fire and ambulance vehicles. Seems there was no lane designed for emergency vehicles, a necessity during rush hour.
Prize Winning Project - The European magazine Euromoney awarded a prize to this project as "Latin America PPP Deal of the Year" for managing to finance the Highway of the Sun unite the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MOPT) with the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE) and Caja Madrid for the approval and implementation of the highway.
Financing - MIGA- The multilateral investment guarantee Agency, a division of the World Bank, loaned a total of 158 Million dollars towards the completion of the project. The initial construction order was approved by the CNC (National Concession Council) and MIGA issued $158.5 million in guarantees for the development of the toll road in Costa Rica. The guarantees are covering an equity investment by FCC Construcción S.A. and Itinere Infraestructura S.A., and a shareholder loan by Caja Madrid. MIGA is providing 15-year coverage for the equity against the risk of transfer restriction. The debt will be covered for up to 18 years against the risks of transfer restriction, expropriation, war and civil disturbance, and breach of contract. This 25-year concession will be the first highway concession in Costa Rica to successfully reach financial closing and begin operations.
Credits to Vanessa Loaiza N. and the Costa Rica news daily, La Nación - Costa Rica's largest Spanish circulation newspaper, for some of the information used in this article.
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