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New $35,000,000 Airport in the Southern Zone to Start in 2012

President Laura Chinchilla has taken the speculation out of Costa Rica's southern zone Airport project.

The following is a reprint from the Tico Times

The project to build an international airport in the southern zone got a boost over the weekend

when President Laura Chinchilla declared the concept to be in the public interest.

That technical designation put a high priority on the 35 million projects, which will start in 2012

to put in the bare bones of an international airport. Until then there are more studies and surveys.

Significant planning and environmental work already has been done. For example, officials can say with certainty that the land proposed for the airport does not contain any of the famous pre-Columbian stone spheres of other important sites. An archaeological survey already has been completed.

According to plans reviewed Saturday, the airport will have a runway from 2,000 to 2,600 meters, some 6,560 to 8,530 feet. The site already has been selected. It is fincas 9 and 10 in the Valle de Diquis in Sierpe de Osa. Officials also plan on getting two adjacent fincas for eventual expansion.?Finca 9 is the property of the Instituto Nacional de Fomento Cooperativo, a public agency. It contains 233 hectares (about 576 acres). Finca 10 contains 261 hectares (645 acres). This is enough land for the runway, ramps, taxiways, a passenger terminal, parking and space for a fixed base operator to handle private aviation. Also needed will be a fire station, a control tower, navigation and landing systems and space for customs and immigration.

The money for this project will come from the Dirección General de Aviación Civil, the national budget and an allocation the Ministerio de Obras Públicas y Transportes received from the International Civil Aviation Organization, officials said.

Ms. Chinchilla said that the airport is important to generate employment and combat poverty. Real estate operators and tourism agencies are solidly in favor of the project.

Ms. Chinchilla made a tour of the southern zone over the weekend and attended a meeting of the Golfito municipal council. There central government officials agreed to help the city with its tourism promotion. (End of Tico Times report)

This addition, combined with the new road from Quepos to Dominical changes the dynamics of travel, tourism and southern zone Real Estate. From this destination, travellers can visit the far south and the central Pacific with ease.

Everyone Will Want to Come to This Part of Costa Rica

Article from International Living Posted August 21st 2010 by Ronan McMahon

You can now leave San Jose at 9 a.m. and by noon, be at a French restaurant on Costa Rica's southern coast, ordering delicious deep-fried brie in Blackberry sauce for lunch. Just six months ago, it would have taken all day to make the journey, and you'd barely have made it in time for dinner.

But today it's a different story.

Seven months ago, the Costanera (coastal) Highway officially opened…more than 30 years after the project was first proposed. Costa Rica's Southern Zone is now accessible. Drive time from San Jose on a comfortable highway is down to three hours from a bone-crunching eight-maybe even 10.

You can still profit by putting yourself ahead of the path of progress. Real estate prices stayed low because this area was difficult to get to….in fact prices here can be as little as a sixth of what you would pay up north.

And Costa Rica's Southern Zone has stunning scenery, with two-thirds of the land protected as a nature-lovers' and adventurers' paradise. There are charming towns that are surprisingly sophisticated. Sipping an espresso or biting into a crunchy baguette, you realize that the culinary influences are European.

The new road is built but government plans also call for an international airport here. Even now, after the new road has opened, you can still buy a quarter-acre lot in a gold-standard project in Costa Rica's Southern Zone for $40,000. This is changing…and fast.

The place is starting to buzz with real estate activity. Everything points to this area exploding.

Remember what happened to real estate values in northern Costa Rica? It was tricky to get to. Liberia airport only had the occasional international flight. Drive-wise, it took around five hours to reach from San Jose on a rough, potholed road. Only diehard surfers and backpackers braved the journey. Mainstream tourists stayed away.

Then the road was resurfaced. And in 2002, regular direct flights started from Liberia airport to the U.S. In 2003, Liberia airport saw 50,000 passenger arrivals. By 2008, passenger arrivals in Liberia had soared to 500,000. Resort and residential developers raised the bar, snapping up the best beach and ocean-view land. In the three years after regular direct flights started, the price of prime beachfront land quadrupled.

I expect we'll see a similar trend in Costa Rica's Southern Zone. The thing is, Costa Rica's Southern Zone is nicer and will stay that way.

Environmental protections mean development will be limited and controlled. Nature will take priority here.

Folks (including IL colleagues) who have made return visits since the road has been completed have been pleasantly surprised by the new comfort and accessibility. That's the way it works with infrastructure improvements. It only becomes real when you enjoy the smooth ride of a new highway or enjoy the convenience of a new airport.

Now the changes are real, the next 12 months will mean big things for Costa Rica's Southern Zone.

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