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By Ralph Nicholson
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The Beach Times – November 10,
2006
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Developers
Promise 800 Jobs As Resort Project Goes Ahead
Developers behind the giant Hyatt Hotel and Resort to be built in Brasilito
announced this week they expect to break ground on the $300 million project
within three months.
A delegation of those involved in the project told a meeting of the
Municipality of Santa Cruz, they expect to be able to submit final
paperwork for phase one of the project within the next two weeks. Work
would start in January.
Phase one will include all 320 hotel rooms of what will be known as the
Hyatt Regency Azulera Resort and Spa, as well as the Greg Norman-designed,
18-hole, golf course.
Camps will be built on site to house as many as 800 workers.
However when operational, the entire project will directly employ between
2000 and 2500 people.
It will take five to seven years to complete and include the resort, 100
condominiums, up to 240 villas around the golf course, an unspecified
number of single dwelling homes, a spa, gymnasium, six restaurants, a
banquet room seating 350, various salt and fresh water swimming pools and a
commercial centre.
“We would expect to break ground some time in January,” confirmed Anil C.
Kothari, president of Global Financial Group.
“We will start the golf course about eight months later so it can be
finished at the same time as the hotel.”
A delegation of 26 crowded into the Municipality’s tiny chamber’s last week
to present their project and answer questions. They included architect
Ronald Zurcher; representatives from the leading architect firm, Michael
Graves and Associates; DEHC Ingenieros Consultores S.A., the San José-based
designers, topographers and surveyors; the San Francisco-based landscaping
company, EDAW Inc; and interior designers Morrison, Seifert and Murphy,
from Dallas, Texas.
The meeting heard the developers had looked at four potential hotels for
the 225-hectare-site (557 acres), but had settled upon the Hyatt Hotels and
Resorts chain because it was family-owned.
“We want to bring family values to your town,” Mr Kothari told the council.
“We want to make the community a partner in the things we are doing,” he
added. “The resort is going to be for the community. We are bringing a
different way of thinking right from the beginning.”
In response to questions from William Aráuz, from the Municipality’s
environmental department, the delegation said they believed they had
sufficient water to begin building.
“We have sufficient water for the first phase which is the building of the
hotel,” said Ramón Ramírez, a principal with DEHC Engineering Consultants.
“We have various wells inside the property which have a capacity of 32 to
33 liters per second (about 8.5 to nine gallons).”
Mr
Ramírez said that beyond their own resources, the government had told them
of plans to improve water delivery within the aqueduct system for the whole
area.
Hinting that the Hyatt project might help fund any improvement to water
infrastructure, Mr Ramírez said: “We have been in conversations with AyA
(the National Institute of Water and Sewerage) and we assume that towards
the end, the developers will have to get involved.”
Mr Kothari also indicated the developers might be prepared to consider
investing in infrastructure to bring water to region.
“It is too early to talk of details, but ostensibly that proposal is
correct,” he said.
“We have received a letter from AyA they will provide us with water in the
future,” he said. “We are looking at several other solutions, including the
possibility of a desalination plant. That would be interesting for us,
because there is an abundance of ocean water.”
The resort will be built on two parcels of land, one along the beachfront
opposite Isla Loros, and another higher up the mountain and with a view of
both Brasilito and Flamingo Bays. The two parcels are split by the road
known as route 155.
While Michael Graves and Associates, the Princeton, New Jersey-based
architectural firm, designed the complex, which will be no more than two
stories high, the construction will be undertaken by Ronald Zurcher and
Associates, which designed The Four Seasons in Peninsula Papagayo.
The property includes about 155 meters of beachfront, part of which is
under concession. The resort itself will occupy 47 acres, which Mr Zurcher
says will be built from farmed teakwood, volcanic rock from the region and
will boast pitched thatched roofs inspired by indigenous arquitecture.
Mr Ramírez told the council an environmental impact study for the first
phase of the project had been approved by the National Technical
Secretariat of the Ministry of Environment (SETENA).
“During the construction phase, we are going to initiate programs with INA
(the National Institute of Learning) and the University to train local
people,” he said.
The developers have retained a sociologist, Flor de Maria Gallardo, who
told the meeting she had been going door-to-door to assess the needs of the
community.
“We will continue to have a sociologist on our payroll from day one,” said
Mr Kothari.
“We are going to use every resource available to us to give the local
people every opportunity to be a part of the project,” he said.
“We believe it is necessary to undertake our own training,” he added. “This
will happen in every area we can think of.
“We want to do something good for the children and young adults of the
area.
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