Property: For sale, Beach Front Eco Lodge - Golfo Dulce - South Pacific, Costa Rica

We purchased the property in 2005 and opened as a lodge in 2007 after much work and renovations. Luck would have it that this was at the beginning of the world economic woes. Still, despite this, we have managed to grow the business every year mainly because we are hands on owners and love what we are doing. We have achieved the #1 and occasionally #2 Tripadvisor specialty lodge rating in the area with Certificates of Excellence 3 consecutive years. 

We have a very unique location offering primary rainforest, the calm and pristine waters of the Golfo Dulce, the adjacent Rio Esquinas river and its mangrove estuary. Bird-watching, hiking, swimming, snorkeling, kayaking and fishing are the most common activities with hammocking and relaxing following closely.

 We have tried to capitalize on this by building diversified revenue streams in addition to the cabin guests. 

We host guests in the cabins all year with Nov – April considered the High Season and the balance of the year is known as the Green Season and with business increasing we are now seeing a steady flow of guests to the lodge during this period too. 

Student campers come in groups by kayak of 15 to 20 kids plus guides and team leaders in mid June through the first part of August. Usually 13 or 14 groups staying 2 nights each. 

In June 2014 we completed 6 new “tent cabins” with outdoor hot water shower. These are basically wood platforms with a bamboo structure, canvas roof and screened sides. This is an upgrade from camping and provides a dry place for the more adventurous guest arriving by kayak to sleep.

Adventure companies bring adults by kayak and stay from 2-5 days depending on their program.

3 different small cruise ships of 50 -90 people arrive for tours of the gardens and primary forest trails in Dec – March.

New this year we have a partnership agreement with a boat tour company hosting large groups to bring them to us for a primary rainforest tour, gardens tour and lunch as part of their dolphin, whale, snorkeling, mangrove tour. With the difficulty and costs of accessing Corcovado National Park, owners of lodges and travel agencies in Pto Jimenez and Matapalo are excited to promote this as a great alternative to Corcovado and to include all the water activities besides.

The Property

It can be a bit confusing understanding how the regulations work for a business/home on the beach in general. Lets talk a little about Saladero specifically.

We have 480 acres of land (200 hectares) of land. It is 1 km of beach-front and 2 km deep (or approximately ½ mile of beachfront and one mile deep). There are 30 acres of gardens and 450 acres of primary rainforest. 

The “maritime zone” is 200 meters from the high tide line. The first 50 meters of the maritime zone is called the public zone. This is 50 meters in from the high tide. We have two buildings and a seawall inside this zone. The buildings were constructed before the law creating the Public Zone was enacted and are grandfathered in. The wall was built after the law by the previous owner and does not have a permit. When the outgoing president recently signed a law permitting existing structures within the Public Zone the wall was also included in that group.

The next 150 meters after the 50 meter public zone and up to 20 meters in altitude is the concession area. This is about 20 acres and is permittable, buildable land. The value of the property is in this area and includes the beach-frontage We have 5 additional buildings in this area and 6 new tent cabins. The whole area has views of the Golfo Dulce with the forest behind and to the sides. We have a permisso de uso for this portion, which does not expire as long as the fees continue to be paid. This is a difficult permit to obtain and can take years and also adds to the value of the property. It is obtained from the local municipality of Golfito.

The primary rainforest 200 meters back from high tide and 20 meters in altitude has been designated National Park (Piedras Blancas National Park). The government said it would buy the land from the owners and to date has purchased 85% of the land previously owned by others. Our property is in the 15% of titled land not yet purchased and we have made a formal application in to have it purchased as well. When this happens, whomever owns the land will receive approx $300,000 or significantly more. We recently consulted with a very well respected law firm in Costa Rica specializing in obtaining the funds due from the government and was very pleasantly surprised to hear the value of our titled land in the park is actually worth significantly more than that figure. Whether purchased or not it doesn't change what we can do with it. We can't build or cut any trees and we love providing oxygen to the world :-). 

Legal Structure

We have two corporations. Neither of our corporations have any type of outstanding debt and are liable only to pay employee benefits, workers compensation, permisso de uso fees, and corporation taxes as due.

We obtained our permisso de uso in July, 2009.

The permisso de uso is meant to be a temporary approval process to allow people to live in and improve their properties in the maritime zone and provide the administrative municipality a source of income until the University of Costa Rica completes its Zoning Plan for this area. 

Early last year the municipality had a public meeting with the proposed "Plano Regulador" but it did not include the properties in the gulf. We were shown on the plan they posted but they decided to concentrate on discussing the properties within the city limits. 

There is one local lodge that has hired an architect and engineer to push the process to completion as having a real "zoning plan" is could be seen as a positive element to the property.