New Marina Will Boost Business and Investment in Quepos

Harold Lovelady and John Kane, both seasoned boaters and fishermen, want a world-class marina on Costa Rica's central Pacific coast, so they have decided to build one.

Last week, President Oscar Arias climbed into an excavator and dropped an enormous boulder not far from the ocean shore, symbolically placing the first stone for the Pez Vela Marina, expected to commence operations next year.

Anyone owning property or a business here stands to gain. In the surrounding area of Quepos (particularly the popular beach area known as Manuel Antonio) the arrival of a new marina could mean more tourism-related business and spruced-up infrastructure. "[The project]…brings a different level of buyer to Manuel Antonio. The yacht culture is a very wealthy culture. Quepos will get a much needed facelift," said Scott Williams, a real estate agent that works in the area.

"It's world class, and will be as good as any marina on this planet," Lovelady says. Construction on the 300-slip marina commenced prior to Arias' ceremony (some three months ago). According to Lovelady, if finished on time it will be the second marina in operation on Costa Rica's shoreline. The other full-service marina is the 200-slip Los Sueños Marina, inaugurated in Herradura in 2001.

The first phase of Pez Vela, which will encompass an ocean stretch "bigger than 25 football fields," will represent a $1.6-million investment. A second phase will include an onshore boatyard, including a "dry stack" storage system and a 200-ton travel lift.

"This allows us to have a boat yard that's able to fix any of the motor yachts or sports-fishing boats [here], no matter what their problem," Lovelady said. "It's the first level of this service south of San Diego, anywhere on the eastern Pacific shore."

Lovelady says economic studies show the project will create 1,000 jobs at the marina, and 2,000 "indirect" jobs will be created by increased tourism traffic in the surrounding community. In addition, the marina will pay local government more than $42,000 a year in fees and taxes.

Pez Vela has already started working with Costa Rica's Instituto Nacional de Aprendizaje (National Training Institute, or INA) to create technical study programs for everything from boat maintenance to boat captainship.

There are another 21 marinas in varying stages of the approval process proposed for Costa Rica, all but one on the Pacific coast. Many of the proposed marinas have yet to undergo lengthy approval processes, but there are a few that seem close to fruition.

The Papagayo Marina project planned for the Papagayo Peninsula in northern Guanacaste has already entered the construction phase. The 217-slip Bahia Escondida Marina, planned for Golfito, in the southern Pacific Golfo Dulce gulf, is expected to begin construction soon. Northern Guanacaste's Flamingo Marina, in Playa Flamingo, was shut down in 2004 because of environmental concerns, and the municipality is working to attract a new concessionaire to re-open the marina and run it.

Your Latin America Insider,

Suzan Haskins
for International Living

P.S. Whatever your interests-boating or other-Costa Rica has a great deal to offer. The experts will tell you all about it this November.