THE rapidly developing area of Guanacaste appears to have a thriving market surrounding home and commercial construction.

The area is home to dozens of companies specializing in building supplies, contracting and other construction-related activities.

One of those companies is the one-stop-shopping construction company Flordel Pacífico (653-0098, www.flordelpacifico.com), managed for the past 12 years by Jeff Hutton.

Hutton’s company is almost entirely self-contained, he said, with its own architect and a carpentry team capable of constructing high-quality doors, windows, cabinets and countertops.

“We’re able to take a client and work with them and customize for their individual needs,” he said.

Hutton said he has a strong background in advanced landscape design, and never works on a project without taking that knowledge into careful consideration.

CUSTOMIZING for the client is also a specialty of José Mora (844-5913), a Guanacaste architect who has designed 22 luxury homes in the area, as well as several five- to seven-story buildings.

He uses a program called 3-D Studio Max to give clients an idea of what their homes will actually look like when constructed, since plans and other renderings can  sometimes be a bit difficult for clients to understand, he said. Mora said he can use the program to give clients a 3-D animated tour of their home or building before the design process is complete.

He has teamed up with a local engineer – Daniel Coen – on virtually every one of his projects in the area. Mora said working consistently with Coen, who oversees the construction process, has allowed for increased project security.

Mora charges 8-10% of the total cost of the project, which he said is a fairly standard price for most architects in Costa Rica.

TOTAL construction prices vary widely, said local contractors, depending mostly on the details.

“You’re money isn’t in doing the gray structure – your money is in how you finish it,” said Norman Dubé of Durocret (845-7873), a concrete-mixing company that also builds small homes for resale.

Hutton agreed with that assertion. He said finishing materials that have to be imported, such as tumbled stone tile, can have a dramatic impact on the price.

Hutton also said things such as the electronic equipment in structures can drastically affect the total cost of the project. In the case of a home, he said, stoves can cost anywhere from $2,000 to $15,000.

He added that he has most of the supplies he uses trucked in from San José.

However, the Guanacaste area is also home to the recently built and still-expanding Papagayo Do It Center (667-0667).

The store consists of a 6,000-square-meter lumber yard and a 6,000-squaremeter warehouse stocked with paint, hardware, electrical materials, plumbing, lighting, housewares, lawn and garden materials, kitchen materials, bathroom supplies, ceramics and furniture.

The only products the store lacks right now, according to store managers, are windows and major electrical appliances such as refrigerators, ovens and washers and dryers. But, they say, the company is currently negotiating contracts that will enable them to offer these supplies.

OPTIONS are also available for clients interested in smaller projects.

For a specialized touch, the area company Stuccoman (653-0647), owned by Phil Baker, specializes in covering houses with colonial-style stucco (for about $7 per square meter), but also builds small pools, bungalows, and does concrete work. He says he’s been working in the area for about three years now, and builds his company “by standing by our work and the product.”

UNTIL recently, the Guanacaste shopping experience has included various souvenir and artisan stands, supermarkets, clothing and surf shops, with the odd pharmacy and entrepreneur filling a community need (computers, cell phones, hair and personal care, spas, etc.). If one wanted a full selection of quality household goods, electronics, CDs, brand-name clothing or even simply a change of pace, many would make the trip to San José.

With the opening of Plaza Liberia over a year ago, the intent was to render that journey unnecessary.

When the doors opened at the threestory shopping mall, its main feature was the quad movie theaters and a store or two.

This March, however, things at the Plaza were really busy, especially for manager Luis Alejander, who oversaw the grand opening festivities for the center’s newest occupant, Mundo La Gloria.

On the first floor, Mundo La Gloria is an offshoot of a popular San José department store; however, the Liberia branch sells only clothing, albeit a fine selection. And shoppers need not worry about cash for their desired goods, because soon Banco Costa Rica will open a facility just across from La Gloria.

ANOTHER flagship of Plaza Liberia is Fischel Drug Store, which opened last August on the second floor. According to Administrator Marleny Rodríguez, the pharmacy is popular because people recognize the name – Fischel is a popular San Jose chain – and know it has all the medicines and supplies in one place. This pharmacy is open on Sundays.

Just across the way from Fischel is a franchise of Quique Surf Shop.

“We’ve done much better than expected,” reports the store’s Yessenia López, explaining that the new location has afforded the opportunity to throw events, such as a recent Billabong party, which drew customers from Liberia and well beyond.

Other familiar names at Plaza Liberia include a Fuji Film booth, Penny Lane shoes, Qué Nota CDs and DVDs, Hallmark cards and gift shop, Pronto women’s clothing in the same store as Armi for men, Altamar Skate & Surf and Bijoux Bellox en Bisuteria accessories.

Although a new name to Costa Rica, Naturana has been quite popular since opening last month. This lingerie store is unique to the area because it sells imports from France and Germany and has a wide availability of sizes. The owners are father and son Bernal and Sebastian Mesen, who saw an opportunity and took it. The Mesens also own the mall’s branch of the popular Exitos music shop, which opened in November 2003. Again, the business has been “much better than expected.”

“We were prepared to have 1 to 1 ½ years of hard times, but since we opened, sales keep going up and up,” says Sebastian. “We get lots of tourists, but really more locals come in than tourists. It’s all relative, because 10 locals may come in and one or two buy, but out of four foreigners, probably one or two will buy.”

ON the other end of the second floor is the

, laden with tables and chairs, but only two services are open. Cocina Mediterrania is owned by Marco Nikola Ferrari, Silvia Castillo and Rosa Esmerald González, and draws on the proprietors’ mix of Italian and Costa Rican heritages to serve pizza, pasta and typical food. They are already “happy with things, so we look for lots of money in the future and many tourists.”

THE

also includes an ice cream shop called Sorbe Heladeria, and there are talks to fill the other slots with chains and private restaurateurs.

On the third floor, where the movie theaters reside and lots more shopping slots wait to be filled, is a Made in India booth selling clothing, jewelry and natural medicines from that country; a Spring Shop clothing store; and Interiors, the exclusive representative in Central America of Mill’s Pride “Quality Cabinets Made Easy.” At the far end is a game room called Centro De Tukis, where kids can partake in such pleasures as Home Run Hitter, Ridge Racer, Pop A Ball and the extremely popular Bozo the Clown Basketball.

Games, food, and shopping aside, the movie theaters are still the crown jewels of Plaza Liberia, having steadily drawn nationals and tourists who previously relied on videos or movie channels for theatrical entertainment. Some, like 24-year-old Liberia resident Fabiola Nuñez, see an average of two current-release movies per week. Nuñez doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.

LOS Sueños marina at Herradura on the central PacificCoast, the larges marina in Costa Rica, has not had space available for the last year.

So you could say that while one marina is still on paper and another is floundering in a legal limbo, the marina situation in Guanacaste has potential. In the next few years its coasts could have bragging rights to two, if not more, new or revamped facilities for pleasure craft.

SIXTEEN visionaries, almost all Costa Rican, who are the Association for the Development of the Marina of Playas del Coco, have set the substantial paper foundation for a new marina there – the zoning plan has been approved, according to the president of the leadership council, Rafael Villegas, but the concession has not been awarded yet.

The group began the paperwork five years ago, with the help of the Triangle of Solidarity, a now-defunct project initiated by the presidency, aimed at helping communities develop. The first backhoes and cement mixers should roll onto the site within a year. The marina will be finished, if all goes as planned, five years later.

They plan to work with the Inter-Institutional Commission for Marinas and Tourism Docks (CIMAT), coordinated by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute, with representatives from the Ministries of Health, Environment, Transportation and the National Housing Institute. CIMAT is charged with providing a technical decision on all marina concessions, which also must be approved by the corresponding municipality (TT, Oct. 3, 2003).

This is an ambitious project that shoots for record proportions in the isthmus – Villegas claims it will be the largest marina in Central America. In the first stage, the marina will have 300 slips and all the services. Those will include the equipment for full, dry repairs, mechanics’ workshops and gas and diesel fill-ups.

VISITORS from abroad will be able to check in with an immigration agent there, and a firefighters’ boat will be on call, as will police. Playas del Coco is a port, it already has a Port Captain, immigration office, and police. The marina will pay for the firefighters’ boat, which they need for their insurance policy. Amenities will include the usual fare for visitors to Costa Rica’s beaches: hotels, condominiums, restaurants and casinos.

The second stage will add 500 slips, taking its capacity to 800. “The marina will comply with all the standards and rules of those in the United States,” Villegas said. “The advantage is that there are no hurricanes.”

He said the prices will be the going rates for similar services anywhere. He claims it will also provide hundreds of jobs, figuring in all the personnel who will work directly for the marina and in the periphery businesses, such as slip attendants, mechanics, and hotel and restaurant employees.

THE situation at the Flamingo Marina on the Bahía Potrero, farther south, is much murkier.

Last week, the Environmental Tribunal ordered the Municipality of Santa Cruz to shut down the Marina for the second time in six months.

Criticizing Mayor Pastor Gómez for allowing the marina to remain open, the Tribunal issued a resolution stating that under no circumstances will boats be permitted at the site and requested the cessation of all activities in the marina.

The Tribunal began investigating last year after reports of alleged water pollution at the marina. When the Municipality failed to present an environmental plan to deal with the problem, the Tribunal first called for the marina’s closure in Oct., 2003.

DESPITE the Tribunal’s ruling, the marina had continued to operate (TT, Dec. 12, 2003).

Alexandra Gutiérrez, administrative director for the Municipality of Santa Cruz, told La Nación that activities at the marina have been suspended. However, she added that the Secretariat Technical of the Environment and Energy Ministry has been evaluating the situation for the past four months and there is a possibility approval will be given to reopen the marina in the future.

Filling in for Mayor Gómez while he was out of the office last week, acting Mayor Mary Paniagua said the future concession was still going through legal procedures, including the approval of a new zoning plan, and could take as long as six months.

ULRIK Oldenburg, hotel owner and president of the Flamingo Beach Association Board, is biding his time while the political forces duke it out over the marina’s new ownership.

His association and the Marina Boat Captain Association had been collecting voluntary payment from boat captains in the slips to pay guards and marina employees in the meantime.

If the dock is closed, Oldenburg estimates that 450 people would be out of work, including all the supporting businesses – hotels, restaurants, etc. that would lose clientele.

“WE [in the associations] all have different interests, but one common goal: that the marina must not close,” Oldenburg said. “The marina is a viable source of income, not just for my hotel, but for the other businesses, down to the lady who sells empanadas on the docks.”

A future marina in Ocotal is more nebulous than the two previously mentioned.

Rick Wallace, owner of the Hotel Ocotal, said he began the paper work a few years ago, but has put the project on hold for now.

CHANCES are you can’t get a tee time at Augusta National. Let’s be honest – you won’t even be allowed through the door.

However, in Costa Rica you’re almost guaranteed to be able to schedule your tee time of choice at the nation’s best courses, with their breathtaking views, amazing fairways and tropical wildlife.

Taking into account that the cost to play two rounds at Pebble Beach, with all its stipulations and restrictions, will cost you roughly three times what it would cost to fly down to Costa Rica, play the same number of rounds and fly home, golfers may find that Guanacaste is the destination they’ve been looking for.

About a 45-minute drive from Liberia’s Daniel Oduber International airport, Hacienda Pinilla (680-7000, www.haciendapinilla.com) in Santa Cruz strives to offer great service as well as ideal playing conditions. Because it is inland, unlike several other Guanacaste courses, the par-72 links course tends to have better wind conditions and it is referred by many to have “the best greens in Central America,” according to David R. Vallejos, the course’s PGA head golf professional.

The course offers four sets of tees, ranging from 5,754 to 7,274 yards for players of varying skill.

In planning the course, designers tried to infringe on as little of the surrounding wildlife, moving very little dirt and working around trees. The course is certified by Audubon International for its protection to its surrounding environment, and has a water filtration system for recycling water from the Hacienda Pinilla resort to water the course. The resort is also involved in a local reforestation project.

PROVIDING guests with an enjoyable experience is important to the staff. “Anything a golfer wants we can provide,” says Vallejos. “And we provide it with a smile.”

The course offers lessons and instruction and has an on-site clubhouse with bar and grill.

Playing 18 holes costs $70 for hotel guests and members of Anagolf. The cost for outside players is $125. Cart is included in the cost. Clubs and shoes are also available for rental.

ABOUT an hour’s drive north at the Paradisus Playa Conchal Beach and Golf Resort (654-4123, www.solmelia.com), the Garra de León course, with its spacious fairways, stunning Pacific Ocean views and howler monkeys in the surrounding trees, offers golfers what the resort calls an “eco-golf experience.” With four sets of tees ranging from 7,080 to 5,446 yards, this Audubon-certified par-72 course offers golfers several playing options.

An 18-hole round at Garra de León during the high season costs $140 for guests of the resort, $175 for outside players. Nine holes is $75 for guests, $85 for outside players. Guests 17 and under play free, while outside players under 17 play for $15. Green fees include cart usage, use of the practice facility, range balls, beverages and club storage. Clubs and shoes are available to rent.

THE course also has a PGA-certified instructor, Garra de León director of golf Philip Krick, Jr. and offers private as well as group instruction and video analysis for players looking to improve their game.

About an hour and a half farther north, the Four Seasons Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo (696-0000, www.fourseasons.com/costarica) opened its golf course in February. Only open to guests of the resort, the Arnold Palmer par-72 course features ocean views from 14 of its 18 holes, with elevation changes throughout.

In contrast to the other courses in the region, the Four Seasons course, has paspalum grass. Paspalum, unlike the traditionally used Bermuda, can stand up better to varying weather and can be watered with saltwater. Some golfers also feel that green speeds are improved with this turf. Also, because it is a closed course it tends to be less crowded than others in the area.

While the course is not Audubon-certified, Director of Golf Rob Oosterhuis says that is one of the resort’s goals in coming months. Also, as the course is new, the construction of the clubhouse is not yet complete, but is expected to be finished by the end of the year.

A round of 18 holes on the 6,788-yard course is $180, with a twilight rate of $110 for play after 2 p.m. Carts are included in the rental. Club and shoe rental are also available.

DEPENDING on your time or budget, a round of nine holes is another option. Farther south, near Playa Tambor on the NicoyaPeninsula are two nine-hole courses.

The longer established of the two is located at Tango Mar Resort (683-0001, www.tangomar.com). For $25, golfers can play all day. Cart is not included in the green fee, however, cart and club rental is available. Barceló Los Delfines (683-0303, www.barcelo.com) resort charges $25 for nine holes, giving players the option to play the course twice for a total 18 holes for $30. Cart is not included in green fee, but cart and club rental is available.

There has been talk about extending the par-35 course to 18 holes, but according to the pro shop such expansion would be in the very distant future.

With the ability to play a selection or all of these courses in one trip and reasonable green fees, golfing after Costa Rica may never be the same.

SINCE 1986, the Liberian Chamber of Tourism (CALITUR) has worked to promote the development of tourism-related businesses in the city of Liberia and throughout the province of Guanacaste. “In general terms, the chamber looks to bring tourists closer to tourism businesses,” said Norma Tinoco, vice-president of the chamber.

In addition to promoting regional tourism, CALITUR also is dedicated to studying the problems that affect the sector as a whole, with the goal of generating permanent solutions. The chamber aims to bring local tourism companies and commercial establishments closer together by providing them with opportunities to network.

“The chamber seeks to foster an open dialogue, where tourism providers can exchange experiences and information and learn from one another,” Tinoco explained. In general terms, the chamber seeks to serve as a permanent link between Guanacaste tourism businesses and the municipal and national governments. The chamber also hopes to ensure its members follow sustainable environmental practices.

THE chamber has more than 60 members involved in all types of tourism-related activities. Members include hotels such as Hotel Buena Vista Lodge, Rincón de la Vieja Lodge, Hotel Borinquen and Hotel El Bramadero, the Ecodesarrollo Papagayo tourism development complex and typical Guanacaste-style ranches, such as Costumbres y Tradiciones La Chácara and El Chapernal.

Additional members include National Car Rental, Alamo Rent-a-Car, Congo Trail Canopy Tour, Sendero Los Tres Monos, TQ3 Travel Solutions, Do It Center construction and building supplies, Souvenir Mundo el Recuerdo, the Liberia Airport Taxi Drivers’ Association and law firms Bufete Paniagua and BLP Abogados.

Guanacaste’s recent tourism-related growth and development and Liberia’s rapid transformation from a quiet small town to the region’s commercial hub have kept CALITUR busy and have forced it to intensify its efforts to promote the region.

“With that goal in mind, the chamber has opened a tourism information stand at   the LiberiaAirport. In the short run, we plan to open additional information stands, including some in Liberia,” Tinoco explained.

“As part of that same effort, CALITUR plans to begin publishing a tourism magazine that will be given out on planes coming  to Liberia,” he explained. “We also plan to create a Web site with tourism information on the region that will make it possible for tourists to get information on Guanacaste from their homes.”

TINOCO is confident Liberia will continue to grow. In her opinion, there is no reason for the current boom to end.

“Traditionally, excellent weather and beaches, mountain ranges and fantastic volcanoes have made Guanacaste a preferred tourism destination,” she explained.

“Today, the region has added high-quality hotels, marinas, golf courses, a shopping center with movie theaters, multinational chain fast-food restaurants, which have caste into the jewel of Central American tourism.”

However, to ensure the growth continues, she considers it essential for the government and the private sector to begin working closer together.

“THE area’s  recent development givesus hope,” Tinoco explained. “The government, municipal as well as central, needs to establish the infrastructure – highways, streets, aqueducts, education, ports, airports – and the private sector must take risks to develop tourism activities – restaurants, bars, shops, coffee shops, book stores and special events.”

The chamber’s m embership is open toall tourism-related businesses operating in Guanacaste.

For more info, e-mail Norma Tinoco at ntinoco@anccar.com.

IN recent months, the Public Works and Transport Ministry (MOPT) has proposed developing two new road projects that would bring Guanacaste closer than ever before to the rest of the country, the daily La Nación reported.

The proposed projects are “La Ruta del Sol” (The Sun Route), which would run parallel to the north Pacific shore from Paquera in Puntarenas to La Cruz in Guanacaste, and expanding the

from two to four lanes from the crossing to Port Caldera to the TempisqueRiver detour.

MOPT is conducting a public bidding process to name the companies in charge of drafting the plans for the projects. Public Works and Transport Minister Javier Chaves said work on these projects could begin as early as late 2006. No word yet on the estimated costs of each project.