Local & Trusted Offices in Costa Rica and the United States
We build in English & Spanish
Santa Cruz · Guanacaste · Design phase · Construction phase · One advocate
One point of contact on your side, from the first sketch to the day you get the keys — in English and in Spanish.
Project management in Santa Cruz
Most owners building around Tamarindo, Playa Flamingo and Hacienda Pinilla live abroad and fly in through Liberia a few times a year, which makes this the cantón where owner-side management earns its keep. Two items set the schedule here before any design work does: the water availability letter from the local ASADA, a genuine gating item in the Tamarindo and Flamingo corridors, and the maritime terrestrial zone boundary on anything near the beach. We confirm both at the start of design management, then specify for salt air from the first drawing. The dry season, roughly December to April, is the easiest window for earthwork and foundations, so builder bids and contracts are timed to have the crew mobilized as it begins rather than halfway through. Owners who want the lot itself checked first can start with an owner's representative evaluation.
Building in Santa Cruz
Coastal lots need attention to the maritime terrestrial zone boundary, and larger or vegetated sites frequently trigger a SETENA filing. Water availability from the local ASADA is a genuine gating item in the Tamarindo and Flamingo corridors — confirm it before design.
Salt air is the governing specification driver. Every ferrous component, rail system and HVAC coil needs marine-grade selection. The dry season is severe, which changes both landscape strategy and water storage sizing.
The most scalable coastal-luxury market in Costa Rica. Strong rental demand supports pool villas and second homes, with buyers arriving through Liberia.
Overview
Building a house in Costa Rica means hiring an architect, a builder, a topographer and an engineer, then working through a string of institutions that each run in Spanish and on their own clock. Full project management puts one bilingual advocate between you and all of them. We set the scope with you, build the budget from real Costa Rican construction costs, run competitive bids for the architect and later for the builder, carry the permit file, and then stay on the job through construction — on site every week, controlling change orders and reporting back with photos — until the warranties and the handover file are in your hands. Unlike our general contracting service, we are not the builder here: we work for you, and we hold the builder to the contract on your behalf.
Local practice
Whatever the service, the underlying method is the same. Structure is reinforced concrete block and beam or light-gauge steel, sized against the seismic zone your lot sits in. Overhangs are deep enough to keep driving rain off the walls. Foundations are raised and drained. Timber is treated or naturally resistant, and detailed to stay out of ground contact.
These are not preferences. They are what has been shown to survive here, and they are why we do not simply execute a set of plans drawn for a different climate without redesigning the parts that would fail.
See the full build standardField notes
Residency, the Caja, taxes and costs — plus the part only a builder tells you: Florida teaches you wind and humidity, and Costa Rica grades you on earthquakes first.
Read the article →Per square foot, per square metre, and everything the per-square-foot number leaves out. Written from the bid tabulations rather than from a forum thread.
Read the article →Local questions
Yes — that is the typical client here. You get a written report with photos every week, video walk-throughs on request, and we plan your visits around the milestones worth seeing in person: the foundation, the roof and the punch list. Decisions that cannot wait for a visit come to you in writing with the options and their costs, and on site we check the marine-grade specification is what gets installed.
Salt air is the governing specification driver. Every ferrous component, rail system and HVAC coil needs marine-grade selection. The dry season is severe, which changes both landscape strategy and water storage sizing.
We build throughout Santa Cruz, with most of our work concentrated in Tamarindo, Playa Langosta, Senderos, Hacienda Pinilla, Playa Flamingo and Reserva Conchal. The most scalable coastal-luxury market in Costa Rica. Strong rental demand supports pool villas and second homes, with buyers arriving through Liberia.
A general contractor builds the house and earns its margin on the construction contract. A project manager works for the owner: we select and supervise the architect and the builder, check their work and invoices against the contract, and have no stake in the construction price. If you would rather have one company design and build under a single contract, that is our general contracting service.
Project management elsewhere
Santa Cruz enquiries
Send us the plano catastrado and we will come back with what the Santa Cruz municipal rules actually allow on that lot, a realistic cost band, and a permitting timeline for this cantón specifically.
Replies within one business day. Consultations in English or Spanish.
