Opening door to Caldera reactive businesses in the area

Since the start of construction of the road so far the cost of lots has soared to 60%.

The Pacific is one of the most visited regions. 37% of tourists chose this area in the first half of 2009.

When he learned of the construction of the highway between the capital and Caldera, Puntarenas, the businessman Julio Restani saw a great opportunity to open a business.

To capture a percentage of the 5 thousand daily users that will hopefully have the new road in the short term led to wager on the tourism sector.

Arose was how Fantasy Pacific Villas, a recreation complex located in Alajuela Orotina, which invested $ 2 million Restani.

“I’m hopeful that there is a great mobilization of tourists to both my business as they arise, may be consolidated,” said Restani.

The reduction in journey times to destinations such as Puntarenas and Guanacaste is one of the major stimuli that gives new tourism highway project because it could encourage City residents to travel more frequently.

“The construction of this new access road to the province of Puntarenas is an added value to the tourism of the country,” said Juan Carlos Ramos, president of National Chamber of Tourism.

But that’s not the only business that takes advantage of the construction of the new route to the Pacific. Others, such as real estate, also rub their hands.

The rise in demand for lots in surrounding areas has generated solid returns for owners of land at the height of that road, because in just two years the price of land has gone up by 60%.

And expectations are that the surplus continues to rise as new businesses emerge around.

“We will see another type of complex industrial parks and export processing zones needed by Caldera port,” said Ignacio Esquivel, an analyst at real estate consulting firm Colliers International.

In this regard, said the El Coyol Alajuela, which will connect with the road to Caldera, which has positioned itself as the new industrial and logistics focus of the country.

The lands which have attracted more capital gains are those that are near intersections and have direct access to the new road, according to Alvaro Ortiz, real estate consultant in the area.

“Lack of access by road also affects the marginal gains,” added the broker.
In the margin of the road to Caldera, land use permit housing development, industrial and commercial.

Currently works with greater peak in the area correspond to properties of containers, warehouses and distribution centers.

In addition, real estate brokers in the area argue that plans for the development of small shopping centers in passing that incorporate gas stations, mini supermarkets, pharmacies and restaurants, considering all the way from San Jose to Caldera.

“We must take into account that a rule of the real estate industry indicates that prices per square meter of small properties are higher than those of larger properties, although they are in the same place,” Ortiz said.

With respect to national real estate activity, Colliers believes that the expectations are positive for the office market, industry and commerce, which are his specialty.

The Central Pacific of Costa Rica was identified by the State of the Nation as the region with the highest increase in poverty in 2008, so the expected increase in visitor arrivals inspire hope in the population of the area.

“It would be an incentive for residents and businesses in the area, where tourism could serve as an engine for development of the port of the Pacific” Ramos said.

Paradoxically, the Pacific is one of the most visited by tourists. Only in the first half of last year, 37% of people who arrived in the country moved to some destinations it offers.