More Shopping Malls Planned for Guanacaste

Three new malls – including one designed entirely for foreign customers – are set to open within months in Liberia, capital of the northwestern province of Guanacaste.

Plaza Santa Rosa is the closest to its grand opening, set for April 6, according to the financial weekly El Financiero. El Llano is scheduled to open in December, while the third, Plaza Futura, will open in January 2007.

Plaza Santa Rosa will contain 57 stores, banks and restaurants, parking for 228 cars, a food court and a Perimercados Jumbo supermarket. The investment for the project is estimated at $4.6 million; the mall will be designed in a colonial style with typical Guanacaste stone walls to remind customers of an old-fashioned plaza, according to project organizers.

The development company in charge of the project is GB&K, which was also responsible for Plaza Rohrmoser in Pavas west of San José.

Centro Comercial El Llano, close to DanielOduberInternationalAirport, will  feature U.S. chain bars and restaurants to entertain and feed guests at the nearby Holiday Inn. Joaquín Gamboa of Fe and Esperanza S.A., which owns the Costa Rican Holiday Inn franchise, told El Financiero guests can’t find places to have fun in Liberia and will enjoy the new mall.