Costa Rica Real Estate News

Planned Costa Rican PriceSmart is Expected to Bring Economic Growth to Area with an Anticipated 700 Jobs.

Residents in and around Alajuela, Costa Rica, will be enjoying a new PriceSmart sometime during the spring of 2009. Headquartered in San Diego, California, PriceSmart is a chain of warehouse shopping stores modeled after the membership-only warehouse outlets in the United States. Currently, these stores can be found in California, the Caribbean, and Central America. PriceSmart shoppers are required to pay an annual membership fee in order to shop at any of these warehouse stores, but the savings realized from the low prices far outweigh the required fee.

The recent PriceSmart acquisition in Alajuela is 21,576 square meters, a little over the typical 20,000 square meters (approximately 5 acres) purchased for a PriceSmart store. PriceSmart reached an agreement with a group of Costa Rican businessmen to purchase the property and has plans to include a commercial shopping area adjacent to the Alajuela PriceSmart. Both the businessmen and PriceSmart will have a 50% interest in the new development.

The new PriceSmart will be a convenience for the local residents, and it will also bring about seven hundred new jobs to the area. Running a huge warehouse-style outlet such as PriceSmart requires an enormous amount of manpower. The new mega-store will be searching for qualified employees to fill multiple positions, including clerks, managers, warehouse personnel, stockers, and buyers. There will also be additional jobs associated with the planned commercial center. These employment opportunities will give a welcomed boost to the region’s economy, which has had a recent slowdown similar to many other worldwide markets.

Most business sectors in Costa Rica have experienced decreased sales, and consumers are wary of financial commitments as a result of the sluggish economy. Higher prices, workforce reductions, and a general sense of financial insecurity have affected the residents in Alajuela and the surrounding regions. The promise of a large number of jobs coming to the Alajuela area within the next eight months is a bright spot for many.

The Costa Rica real estate market has seen a recent slump in sales, but real estate sales in the Alajuela area are expected to accelerate immediately prior to and following the completion of the new PriceSmart warehouse store. PriceSmart is an established and well-respected company, and its employees are generally able to plan on continued employment as long as they meet PriceSmart’s employment requirements. The security of steady employment will likely lead many residents to consider purchasing a home, a forecast the Costa Rica real estate businesses in and around Alajuela are happily preparing for.

PriceSmart also has plans for the construction of a new warehouse store in Panama City, Panama. It is expected that the Panama City PriceSmart will have a positive economic effect in this region similar to the predicted effect in the Alajuela area. Additional Costa Rican PriceSmart stores are located in Zapote, Escazu, Heredia, and Llorente. For more information about PriceSmart warehouse stores, visit http://www.pricesmart.com/. Spanish and English translations of the Web site are available.