Why be in weather like this …..

Dear Reader,

First and foremost, all of us at Nica Projects wish the best of the season to you and your family over the upcoming holiday season. It seems that each year is busier, and so we sincerely hope that you are able to enjoy precious time with your family and loved ones.

when you could be in
weather like this!

Master Bedroom in
Hotel Penthouse Suite

Most importantly, we’re adding new projects to the Nicaragua portfolio. As some of you know, in October we announced the design and pre-construction sales of The Hotel Tamarindo. This hotel is a 16 unit condo/hotel – each unit is owner individually and centrally managed and marketed. Each unit’s owner receives a regular return on their investment based on occupancy throughout the year, typically between 7%-11% p.a.

The clubhouse is housed on the main floor of the Hotel Tamarindo along with the restaurant, lounges, pool, fitness center, a large infinity pool, amenity access and beachfront walkways accessible from the ground floor.  Check out the images on our website.

We’ve already received strong interest for several units in the past four weeks of promoting it, so contact us today if you are interested in learning more about the Hotel Tamarindo.

Let’s not forget about Tamarindo Beach & Ocean Estates. Title transfers are continuing and we expect to complete them shortly.

We’ve also had several questions related to the actual beachfront and the ocean swimming/surfing/boating conditions in-front of and around Tamarindo Beach & Ocean Estates, so we’ve obtained the oceanography map for the region, and placed a copy on the website.

As the map shows, there is a sandy bottom and the depths show that at approximately 2 km out from the beach, the depth is only 20 feet. 

At 5 km from the beach, the depth is 60 feet deep. This means that there no undertow and minimal “fetch” for a large wave to crest on the shore.  And the water is some of the warmest in the region.

The sand bar at the southern end of the island is 1300 feet (400 meters) long and, at low tide, a person can walk out approximately 1200 meters.

In related news, Nica Projects has been working with other local developers to recently form a land developers association that will work together on common island issues. At the time of writing this, we have already committed to fund joint work on common roads, and power and water access and conduits. We had already started on some of this work, but from our perspective, it is helpful to have other developers to share the work and cost.

The dry season arrives in December and the construction begins again. Our plans call for road widening, drainage and compaction during the remainder of December and January 2008, water upgrades during February and March, and electrical upgrades during March and April 2008.  The roadwork to be done in conjunction with the planned covering of the main access road to be completed by the municipality of Leon during the same period.

Our architect, Mantica Architectos is making excellent progress in developing both individual housing designs (see photo-real renderings), and the hotel/clubhouse.

One recent addition to the design portfolio are the bungalows. These bungalows have a smaller footprint, and yet still provide all the first-class amenities that you have come to expect from Tamarindo Beach. You can see the designs on our website here.

In marketing news, Nica Projects is planning a series of seminars on the west coast, starting late January 2008. We will be presenting on Vancouver BC , Calgary AB , Seattle WA , Bellevue WA , Portland OR , and San Francisco CA , with a specific focus on presenting our Nicaraguan projects and allowing you to meet some of the people that you talk to on the phone. The seminars will be about 90 minutes long, generally in the late afternoon. If you are interested in learning more, please visit our website and complete the registration form accessible from the home page.

Economic and Investment News

Over the past few months, there have been significant changes within the world economy that are impacting Nicaragua .

These changes have been driven by the credit problems within the US marketplace which have caused a dual problem of declines in US consumer confidence and real estates values. Investing 101 tells us that educated investors wish to place their money in the area or asset that has the best chance to appreciate. And with unknown impacts affecting the US marketplace, the international real estate markets are currently more appealing.

An article dated November 14^th 2007 by NuWire Investor names Nicaragua as one of the top 5 Latin American Real Estate markets.

In their words; “The (Latin American) market appears especially ripe for picking as Latin American governments implement programs at foreign investment and improve their economic growth potential.”

Specifically on Nicaragua, “ Nevertheless, optimistic investors believe that Ortega’s personal investment in business and tourism projects around the country are a sign that he plans to take a different path this time in office, and that the President is now trying to make amends for his violent past as a young Sandinista revolutionary.” The entire article is available here. 

The fact is that more people are looking at investing in Nicaraguan real estate because of the close proximity, stable economic and property environments, and, of course, stronger likelihood of capital appreciation. Because of this, we have coined the phrase ‘Costa Rica North’ to describe Nicaragua .

Costa Rica North is an apt description because:

1. Nicaragua is physically the northern neighbor of Costa Rica ( Tamarindo Beach is about 60 miles north of the border),

2. The topography is similar, and

3. The current Nicaraguan land values are similar to those found in Costa Rica over 10 years ago. 

If you’ve been following the attempt by Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela, to introduce several initiatives that would effectively extend his Presidency indefinitely and give him defacto control of the major political and government institutions, you’ll be interested to learn that he unexpectedly lost in a close 51%/49% referendum vote. It was a divisive campaign, and some early opinion believes that the rejection of these constitutional ‘reforms’ will improve harmony in Latin America. 

In economic news, we’ve been following Norwood Resources as they had been test drilling for oil & gas in Nicaragua . On July 11^th, they released a preliminary report identifying oil in 7 levels of their drill. 

Two more recent press releases are very interesting to note …

On September 28 2007, Norwood announced that they had re-tested previous core samples and now had “enhanced commerciality prospects” at two of their sites. They also announced the hiring of a new general manager for Nicaragua . 

On November 15^th 2007, the company announced that they had bought a new oil rig and related equipment valued at over $5.7M, with the intent of shipping it to Nicaragua as part of their drilling program.

All in all, it appears that Nicaragua may well be on the way to tapping into its own oil and gas reserves!