The humble pier and floating platforms that were built to service the Banana Export business in 1940’s have seen years of service and made the port of Quepos a thriving destination for commercial and sport fishing in the years since the Banana Company left town.

As I stood at the site of the old Quepos Hospital this morning and looked down on the Marina Site, it was easy to see why the first foreign residents in the area picked the hills above the port to establish their community.

There is a history of foreign investment in Quepos and the “Zona Americana” tells the story with its decades old settlement where quaint wooden homes, tennis courts, swimming pools, and even bowling alleys paint a picture of a laid back tropical lifestyle where the rest of the world can’t seem to penetrate your bubble and time stands still.

Today with the new marina being built, and a new destiny for the port of Quepos, foreign residents are continuing to invest in the Quepos and Manuel Antonio area searching for their own tropical paradise.

Now, yachtsmen will be able to dock their boats in a full service marina, and have access to all of the area’s amenities. The 35 acre site will house retail services including bait and tackle, marine parts and supplies, as well as deli, ice, sit down restaurants and other shopping.

There will be a total of 250 boat slips, many of which have already been reserved. On land marine services will include dry rack storage and all types of repair. Many of my clients ask me how I think the marina will affect real estate prices, but they all know the answer.

The economic correlation is clear: a world class 250 slip yachting facility in an area as beautiful as Manuel Antonio will only push prices of complimentary real estate higher. Many of our clients are buying hotels and vacation rental homes, while others are buying up land for future projects or personal homes.

In a recent update: “MECO has recently hired Johnny Gentile as construction manager for the project. Johnny has 40 years of marine construction experience in Central America and he has built several sheet pile coffer dam marinas. He has brought with him, a number of experienced marine construction specialists who will be assisting him with the build.”

“The first shipment of sheet piles (600 tons) was delivered last week to the site in Quepos. The first large crane was delivered last week and a second one is on the way. Substantial work has been completed along the south dike of the marina and we expect the south breakwater sheet pile installation will commence in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, rubble materials for the south and north breakwaters are being brought to the site daily. Materials are also being sorted and staged out by the Naranjo River (by the airport).”

MECO appears to hava hired the right people to build the project and although the construction schedule has been revised we are expecting to have completed this project – one of the largest marine structures of any kind in Central America in August 2008.

Given where the project is today, the people who are now working on it, the financing and investor support they have in place, we are confident the marina will be built.

The funding for the project is complete, with the bank and our other financing partners 100% committed to completing the project no matter the eventual cost. Their commitment is so strong in fact, they have proposed to provide a financial guaranty to buyers of new slip options in support of our sales effort.

We have been working our landside development partner to finalize building sizes, uses and locations on the site. We are also working on actual layouts for the units we expect to build. We have agreed to formally introduce the residences at the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show this October. We expect to be providing all of our existing customers with pre-introduction pricing and preferred unit selection by middle of September.”

For more detailed information about slip prices at this new Quepos Marina and Martin’s Top Five Manuel Antonio Homes For Sale which he believes will offer you the best possible return on your investment, please help us to help you by contacting Martin using the form below:

Please note that although lower priced homes occasionally come onto the market, prices for luxury real estate in this Quepos and Manuel Antonio start at around US$500K.

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If you have ever dreamed of living in the Manuel Antonio area and would like to know more about real estate for sale please contact our Recommended Costa Rica Realtors Daveed Hollander, John Wieland and James Drews by using the simple form below: