Hyatt Says January Start to Brasilito Hotel: The Beach Times
By Ralph Nicholson
The Beach Times – November 10, 2006
Developers Promise 800 Jobs As Resort Project Goes AheadDevelopers behind the giant
Hyatt Hotel and Resort to be built in Brasilito announced this week they expect to break ground
on the $300 million project within three months. A delegation of those involved in the project
told a meeting of the Municipality of Santa Cruz, they expect to be able to submit final
paperwork for phase one of the project within the next two weeks. Work would start in January.
Phase one will include all 320 hotel rooms of what will be known as the Hyatt Regency Azulera
Resort and Spa, as well as the Greg Norman-designed, 18-hole, golf course. Camps will be
built on site to house as many as 800 workers. However when operational, the entire project
will directly employ between 2000 and 2500 people. It will take five to seven years to complete
and include 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. “We
would expect to break ground some time in January,” confirmed Anil C. Kothari, president of
Global Financial Group. “We will start the golf course about eight months later so it can be
finished at the same time as the hotel.” A delegation of 26 crowded into the Municipality’s tiny
chamber’s last week to present their project and answer questions. They included architect
Ronald Zurcher; representatives from the leading architect firm, Michael Graves and
Associates; DEHC Ingenieros Consultores S.A., the San José-based designers, topographers
and surveyors; the San Francisco-based landscaping company, EDAW Inc; and interior
designers Morrison, Seifert and Murphy, from Dallas, Texas. The meeting heard the
developers had looked at four potential hotels for the 225-hectare-site (557 acres), but had
settled upon the Hyatt Hotels and Resorts chain because it was family-owned. “We want to
bring family values to your town,” Mr Kothari told the council. “We want to make the community
a partner in the things we are doing,” he added. “The resort is going to be for the community.
We are bringing a different way of thinking right from the beginning.” In response to questions
from William Aráuz, from the Municipality’s environmental department, the delegation said they
believed they had sufficient water to begin building. “We have sufficient water for the first
phase which is the building of the hotel,” said Ramón Ramírez, a principal with DEHC
Engineering Consultants. “We have various wells inside the property which have a capacity of
32 to 33 liters per second (about 8.5 to nine gallons).”Mr Ramírez said that beyond their own
resources, the government had told them of plans to improve water delivery within the
aqueduct system for the whole area. Hinting that the Hyatt project might help fund any
improvement to water infrastructure, Mr Ramírez said: “We have been in conversations with
AyA (the National Institute of Water and Sewerage) and we assume that towards the end, the
developers will have to get involved.” Mr Kothari also indicated the developers might be
prepared to consider investing in infrastructure to bring water to region. “It is too early to talk of
details, but ostensibly that proposal is correct,” he said. “We have received a letter from AyA
they will provide us with water in the future,” he said. “We are looking at several other
solutions, including the possibility of a desalination plant. That would be interesting for us,
because there is an abundance of ocean water.” The resort will 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. 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. The property includes about 155 meters of beachfront, part of which is
under concession. The resort itself will occupy 47 acres, which Mr Zurcher says will be built
from farmed teakwood, volcanic rock from the region and will boast pitched thatched roofs
inspired by indigenous arquitecture. Mr Ramírez told the council an environmental impact study
for the first phase of the project had been approved by the National Technical Secretariat of
the Ministry of Environment (SETENA). “During the construction phase, we are going to initiate
programs with INA (the National Institute of Learning) and the University to train local people,”
he said. The developers have retained a sociologist, Flor de Maria Gallardo, who told the
meeting she had been going door-to-door to assess the needs of the community. “We will
continue to have a sociologist on our payroll from day one,” said Mr Kothari. “We are going to
use every resource available to us to give the local people every opportunity to be a part of the
project,” he said. “We believe it is necessary to undertake our own training,” he added. “This
will happen in every area we can think of. “We want to do something good for the children and
young adults of the area.
(See Brasilito area below-about 20 minutes North of Tamarindo)
JW Marriott to Double Rooms: The Beach Times
By Beach Times Staff
The Beach Times September 8, 2006
Developers behind the proposed JW Marriott resort, to be built on Hacienda Pinilla’s
sprawling 1,820-hectare beach and golf community, have announced they intend to
double the number of hotel rooms. The high-end, JW Marriott resort will now include
310 bedrooms instead of the originally planned 180 with up to 30 executive level guest
rooms and around ten stand-alone casita units. Additionally, the resort will have a
business center. The announcement will be welcomed by business leaders and local
government in Guanacaste for both the employment opportunities it will create and the
potential to pressure the Costa Rican government for vital infrastructure, like roads,
water and security. It is the seventh in the Marriott chain to appear in Latin America. It
should open in 2008 and boasts designs from pre-eminent Zurcher Architects and
interior design by Paul Duesing Partners. The project will go ahead under a franchise
reached between Marriott International, Inc. and Hotel Real de Pinilla, S.A., a
subsidiary of Grupo Poma, an El Salvador-based conglomerate and one of Central
America’s biggest commercial and industrial groups. Grupo Poma’s hotel division,
known as Real Hotels & Resorts will manage the resort, which will be nestled within
the 4,500-acre Hacienda Pinilla Beach Resort and Residential community development
that includes an 18-hole golf course, an equestrian center, tennis courts, villas and
beach houses. “ Costa Rica is world-class leisure destination, especially for eco-
tourism, and attracts a diverse group of visitors,” said Ed Fuller, the President and
Managing Director of International Lodging for Marriott International.
By Beach Times Staff
The Beach Times September 8, 2006
Developers behind the proposed JW Marriott resort, to be built on Hacienda Pinilla’s
sprawling 1,820-hectare beach and golf community, have announced they intend to
double the number of hotel rooms. The high-end, JW Marriott resort will now include
310 bedrooms instead of the originally planned 180 with up to 30 executive level guest
rooms and around ten stand-alone casita units. Additionally, the resort will have a
business center. The announcement will be welcomed by business leaders and local
government in Guanacaste for both the employment opportunities it will create and the
potential to pressure the Costa Rican government for vital infrastructure, like roads,
water and security. It is the seventh in the Marriott chain to appear in Latin America. It
should open in 2008 and boasts designs from pre-eminent Zurcher Architects and
interior design by Paul Duesing Partners. The project will go ahead under a franchise
reached between Marriott International, Inc. and Hotel Real de Pinilla, S.A., a
subsidiary of Grupo Poma, an El Salvador-based conglomerate and one of Central
America’s biggest commercial and industrial groups. Grupo Poma’s hotel division,
known as Real Hotels & Resorts will manage the resort, which will be nestled within
the 4,500-acre Hacienda Pinilla Beach Resort and Residential community development
that includes an 18-hole golf course, an equestrian center, tennis courts, villas and
beach houses. “ Costa Rica is world-class leisure destination, especially for eco-
tourism, and attracts a diverse group of visitors,” said Ed Fuller, the President and
Managing Director of International Lodging for Marriott International.
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