EXCLUSIVE: Investors Capitalizing on Inexpensive Costa Rica Beachfront

PUNTA DOMINICAL, COSTA RICA-A couple of business associates from the states are capitalizing on demand for affordable beachfront with 2,000 acres here that they picked up for $2.5 million. The two friends have plans for 25 different developments on the property and currently have three condominium developments under way, including a condo hotel, and single-family residential neighborhoods. The two main men behind the development are Hal Wright, the founder of the extended stay hotel brands Homestead Village and Extended Stay America, and Robert Ness, the chairman of Ohio-based ODW Logistics. Wright tells GlobeSt.com he retired several years ago, about the same time his friend Ness bought 2,000 acres on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica for about $0.03 per sf, or about $2.5 million.

“It was a troubled property but it had three miles of beachfront,” Wright says. “Its appraised value today is at least $40 million, not accounting for the development.”

Wright says he was slowly putting plans together when the local economy took off thanks to an incredible amount of American capital coming into the area in search of beachfront or ocean views. “America has a love affair with the beach; there’s probably $1 trillion of capital looking for beachfront and Hawaii and the Caribbean are too expensive,” he says. “The Baja Peninsula on the Pacific coast also has been bid up, so I decided to seize the opportunity; we now have 70 employees and will be building these up and down the Pacific coast here.”