If you are searching for the Sonesta project in Jacó because you are thinking of buying into it, stop and read this first.
It is not a hotel you can book. It is not a development you can buy into. It is a half-finished concrete tower that has stood empty on the Jacó beachfront for roughly sixteen years, and around 155 people lost about $16 million in deposits when it collapsed.
It is also one of the most instructive stories in Costa Rican real estate, and worth understanding before you buy anything pre-construction in this country.
What it was supposed to be
A luxury condo-hotel and beach club on the central Pacific coast: more than 200 oceanfront condominiums plus a hotel, spa, restaurants, infinity pools and private beach access. It was first marketed as One Jaco Place and later rebranded around the Sonesta name.
The developer was Riverside Developers. Financing closed in 2007, backed by CABEI — the Central American Bank for Economic Integration — together with private banks. Reported construction cost was around $70 million.
Is Sonesta actually involved?
This matters, because the name on the building misleads people.
Reporting indicates Sonesta had begun taking on management of the hotel component before the collapse — so the brand association was real at the time, but it was a management and branding arrangement, not an ownership or development stake. Sonesta did not build it and does not own it.
Today, Sonesta International Hotels lists no property in Costa Rica at all. Its Latin American presence is Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Mexico, plus Curaçao and Sint Maarten. Calling the building “a Sonesta resort” in the present tense is simply inaccurate.
What happened
2007 — Financing closes. Construction begins.
2008 — The project is reported at around 84% complete, with roughly 75% of condominiums presold. Completion is targeted for early 2009.
2009 — The lender accelerates debt repayment. Work stalls.
Easter 2010 — The developer emails buyers announcing litigation against the bank and stating he cannot afford to finish.
2010–2017 — Litigation. Per contemporaneous reporting, the developer lost at first instance and lost every appeal. Two investors sued the bank separately and won, but were reportedly never paid.
2016 onward — The structure sits unfinished. Squatters are reported at one stage; it is later fenced with barbed wire and put under 24-hour security.
2023–2025 — Still abandoned. The lender reportedly retains control, with maintenance and oversight costs cited at around $80,000 a month.
A note on fairness: the “the bank breached the agreement” framing of this story originates with the developer, who lost in court. We are setting out the reported sequence, not adjudicating who was at fault.
What happened to the buyers
This is the part that matters most.
Roughly 155 to 160 buyers lost about $16 million in deposits. Around 16 of them had actually closed and held title to their units — and those units were unusable: no working elevators, no water, no power. Holding title to a condominium inside an abandoned building is worth approximately nothing.
The mechanism of the loss is the lesson: deposits were spent directly on construction rather than held in escrow, and Costa Rica had essentially no developer-escrow regulation at the time. When the project stopped, there was no pot of money to return. It had already been poured into the concrete you can still see from the beach.
The lesson for anyone buying pre-construction in Costa Rica
People buy off-plan here for good reasons — better pricing, better units, the chance to customise. It is not inherently a bad idea. But the Sonesta collapse shows exactly where the risk sits:
- Insist on genuine escrow. Your deposit should sit with a regulated third party and be released against verified construction milestones — not handed to the developer to spend. If a developer resists this, that is your answer.
- Understand who is financing the build. If the project depends on a single lender and that relationship sours, your deposit is exposed regardless of how well sales are going. Sonesta was 84% built and 75% sold when it stopped.
- A famous brand name is not a guarantee. A hotel operator’s management agreement does not mean that company has money in the ground or any obligation to your deposit.
- Holding title is not the same as holding something usable. Sixteen buyers found that out.
- Get independent Costa Rican legal representation. Not the developer’s lawyer, and not the lawyer the developer recommends.
If you have been offered a stake in it
Be careful. There is no legitimate sales channel for this building that we could identify.
What exists is a dormant asset apparently under the lender’s control, with unresolved claims from around 155 former buyers, and informal claims circulating on social media that “the building is now for sale” with no verifiable listing behind them. We found no announced revival, buyer, demolition or relaunch in any source through 2025.
If someone is pitching you a resale, a relaunch, or a recovery of a former buyer’s position, treat it with real scepticism and get independent legal advice before any money moves.
A wider pattern
Sonesta was not alone. In August 2007, AOL co-founder Steve Case announced an $800 million resort at Punta Cacique in Guanacaste — 263 hectares, three five-star hotels, a golf course — launched at Casa Presidencial alongside President Óscar Arias. It never materialised as announced either.
The 2007–08 window produced a number of Costa Rican mega-projects that were announced with confidence, financed on optimistic terms, and did not survive the financial crisis. The country’s property market recovered. Individual buyers in specific failed projects, in many cases, did not.
Where the tower stands now
Still there. Still empty. Fenced, guarded, and visible from the beach at Jacó — a sixteen-year-old monument to the difference between a project that is 84% built and a project that is finished.
Costa Rica has since seen improvements in how developer funds are handled, and plenty of well-run projects complete on time. But the burden of checking still sits with the buyer, and the Sonesta tower is the reason to take it seriously.
Buying property in Costa Rica?
Property purchase and residency are separate processes, and the requirements for investor residency in particular are specific about what qualifies. CRIE — Costa Rica Immigration Experts handles residency applications and can tell you what your investment does and does not achieve for your status before you commit to anything.
Read about investor residency in Costa Rica, or contact us.
This article is general information, not legal or investment advice. The figures cited — construction cost, completion percentage, buyer numbers and deposit losses — come from Costa Rican and expatriate media reporting over a fifteen-year period and are attributed rather than independently verified. If you have a claim relating to this project, consult a Costa Rican attorney.
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