By Ivo Henfling

As some of you know, I bought a condo in Jaco from a developer who did a good job in Escazu, Joshua ten Brink of Desarrollos Naturales. When the crisis hit, the bank thought that most of Joshua's buyers were not capable of closing, so they didn't give Joshua any more money to finish his project. Desarrollos Naturales and the bank are fighting each other, both forgetting that many people have all their savings tied up in this project and only thinking of their own interests. Joshua didn't want to tell me who all the other real estate buyers were, so I started my own private little war against him to try to get in touch with the rest of the people. I have done so online, just like I am writing this and many people have found me.

We are only 14 condo owners who have closed and all the others don't know where their money went. I started a group and every time I have an update, I will email the whole group. Below is my latest adventure, an email to the whole group:

Hi all Sonesta One Jaco buyers,

As promised, I went to Jaco, went by the buildings, they go attached. I found a guard and the head of the cleaning team, Giselle, onsite. She has been trying to keep up with the cleaning on her own and I must say it all looks pretty decent for an abandoned place. They have boarded up the entrances to keep easy control for security.

The story that the building is falling apart is definitely not true. I am not a structural engineer but a realtor with a trained eye and would like you to know the following:

The foundations look good, there are no cracks in any floors or walls. All the damage is superficial and mostly drywall that has gotten wet and destroyed or it will need profound cleaning with Clorox and a good paint job. The exterior of the building (the upper floors) have a pink fungus, which is easy to treat. The lower floors have black fungus, which needs cleaning and painting. The steel structure has a lot of rust everywhere, some at the base where its bolted to the floor and quite a few crossbeams that are outdoors have rusted parts everywhere but look like surface rust. Those beams need some maintenance soon as they are the foundations to the buildings. I’ve added some red arrows to some of the pictures to show for the damage.

The rancho – restaurant is all in good shape and the roof doesn’t seem to be leaking. The pool is pretty clean and has not cracked (yet). The terraces around the pool are ok. The lawns are mown and reasonably kept up with.

All in all, though I’m not happy with the situation, the buildings are in decent shape and we can only hope all will come to an end soon. I’m also attaching photo # P1010935, which is the pictures of the proud owners of an apartment in another project that went down the drain: Jaco Palms, built by the developer of Pacific Sun estates. 

 My clients put $60,000 down 4 years ago and now the developer is willing to swap the unfinished condo in the picture for a unit as shown in the first picture in the above link.

Joshua ten Brink, if you see this post, I will swap my unit in One Jaco for any of the units you still own in Riverside.

Some of you might wonder if ANYTHING is nice in Jaco beach and I can assure you that yes, there are actually only 2 projects that went down the drain. There are many other nice properties for sale in Jaco beach and we have a very good affiliate realtor there, Nikita Mohammed, feel free to contact her.

By the way, that takes me to Rivergrand estates, where Joshua and Jerry seem to have put all their money. Any day, I will take some pictures to show you what’s going on there. Meanwhile, I am wondering why any of you who have put money down on the purchase of your unit, some even paid for the full amount, but have not closed. Maybe it’s time to have your attorney check where your money went to? You might think it’s sitting in Trust 1665 One Jaco – Lafisse – BCEI, but probably its not. You want to wait asking for your money back when the bank and Joshua and Jerry have stopped fighting over your money? Its $16,562,043 if you wonder how much money it is. That’s YOUR money, not mine. I got my ruined unit……

If you are in the market to buy Costa Rica real estate, contact me because I have learned from my mistakes and I will make sure this does not happen to you too.

Ivo Henfling

GoDutch Realty

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