Construction work on a $400-million hotel and casino resort in Costa Rica is expected to begin in early 2019, after the project has received the necessary approval from the host municipality and tourism regulators, local news outlet The Costa Rica Star reports.

The property will be located in the village of Moín, in the Limón Province. It will operate as Casino City Caribe. Architecture firm Patti Rao Project will carry out the project. The company is led by Vancouver, Canada-based architect Patti Rao.

Mr. Rao told local media that they have selected Moín as the preferred location of their resort due to the untapped tourism potential of the area and their partners’ interest in investing in ecotourism projects. The architect further pointed out that the idea for Casino City Caribe emerged after he had retired and that he wanted to do something that would contribute to the further development of Costa Rica as a popular tourism destination.

Construction is expected to begin early next year. The project will be carried out in several phases until the final one is rolled out in 2027. Construction work during the first phase is expected to generate 150 new jobs. According to preliminary estimates, the resort will employ around 1,500 people once fully operational.

Casino City Caribe will feature three hotels with a total of 264 rooms, 219 apartments, three casinos, two convention centers – one with capacity for 60 people, and the other for 150 people – a spa and wellness center, an entertainment center, a business center, and different other recreational facilities as well as large green areas.

The complex will offer access to the beach. It will also feature a heliport and a marina to provide visitors and guests with better access options.

While the project is still in its early stages of development, it has already been granted the necessary approval from the host Matina Municipality, the Costa Rica Tourism Board, and the Ministry of Environment.

According to information from the Costa Rica Tourism Board, the island nation welcomed nearly 3 million international tourists last year. Visitors from North America accounted for more than a half of that number.

During the first quarter of this year, Costa Rica received 6% more tourists than the 919,631 arrivals recorded during the same period of 2017. The Tourism Board has said that while the number of tourists from North America decreased during the first three months of 2018, the number of visitors from Europe and North America increased 14.2% and 11.4%, respectively.

Costa Rica has recently opened its first convention center, aiming to position itself as a popular destination for business events. The total amount of $35 million was invested in the nearly 170,000 square-foot venue which has the capacity for over 6,500 delegates and offers nearly 50,000 square feet of exhibition space. As mentioned above, the new Casino City Caribe will, too, feature two convention facilities, although much smaller in scale than the newly opened Costa Rica Convention Center.

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