Developing in Costa Rica: what international investors underestimate
Land price and construction cost are the easy numbers. The ones that decide a project’s return are permitting duration, logistics and the quality of local execution.
Read articleLead times, customs, warehousing and installation windows — the four variables that most often move a hospitality opening date.
FF&E is where design intent becomes a physical, dated, containerised logistics problem. It is also where budgets quietly fail, because the cost of the item is only part of the cost of having it in the room on the right day.
Lead time is a design input
Specification decisions carry delivery consequences. A finish selected because it is beautiful and available in twelve weeks is a different project from the same finish at thirty. Procurement strategy should be developed alongside the design package, not after it.
Budget the whole landed cost
Freight, insurance, duties, brokerage, storage, local transport, installation labour, attic stock and replacement of transit damage. A budget built on ex-works pricing will be wrong by a margin that matters.
Warehouse deliberately
Goods arriving before the building can receive them need somewhere secure, dry and inventoried. Goods arriving after the installation window has opened cost far more than storage ever would. Both scenarios are managed by the same thing: an expediting discipline that tracks production against the installation programme weekly.
Close out properly
Asset tagging, inventory reconciliation, warranty documentation and attic stock handover are what allow the operator to take control with confidence. They take days if planned, and months if not.
Have a project where this applies? We are happy to look at it with you.hello@asg-cr.com
