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Florida Development Team Plans $500M Resort Marina
in Costa Rica
November 14, 2005
By Jennie Bell, Southeastern Correspondent
Reprinted from the Commercial Property News

At the request of the government of Costa Rica, Miami-born developers Jim Lynskey and Harvey Sasso are embarking on a $500 million resort marina project (rendering pictured) in the country's southeastern village of Golfito. Lynskey is partnering with Sasso's company, marina specialists Coastal Systems.

The first phase of the development will include an authentic village community with retail and residential components, designed to blend with the surrounding Golfo Dulce Forest Reserve. It will include a total of 22,000 square feet of retail space, with seven boutique shops, two restaurants, a casino, a grocery, health club and yacht club.

The residential component will initially comprise 51 luxury condominiums with prices ranging from $300,000 to $800,000. Those units are already 75 percent sold, primarily to U.S. buyers, noted Phil Perko, president of Digital Capital International Sales Group, the marketing agent for the properties.

The second phase, however, will feature million-dollar town homes and private residences. "We knew that we could sell this first space just with our contacts in the fishing industry," Perko said. "But for the higher-end residences in Phase II, we know we'll have to go to the international market to sell those."

As for the marina, Bahia Escondida will receive two new, custom-built covered piers, for a total of 216 marina slips ranging from 55 to 150 feet and priced between $180,000 and $600,000. In addition, Lynskey and Sasso have also received concession rights at Golfito's existing freight pier.

That pier, originally used by the Chiquita Banana company, can house the new 400-foot, luxury mega-yachts. "There is a strong demand for marina slips because of the influx of boaters from South Florida and California," Perko said. Many are fishermen eager to explore the area, he added, but owners of the oversize yachts, who are limited for locations, are also showing interest.

Chiquita Banana built the Golfito port town in 1920's but subsequently abandoned it 60 years later, Perko observed. And although the Costa Rica government later tried to establish the town as a duty-free trade zone, its remote location and natural barriers of rain forest and water have left it largely undeveloped in the past few years.

Bahia Escondida will break ground in January 2006, with the completion of the marina set for the end of 2006. The village should be completed by fourth quarter 2007.

Visit the developer's website!