The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei), approved a $450 million loan to the Costa Rica government, to build a new complex of state-owned buildings, known as a government city, where most of the ministries will be located.

According to Cabei, the loan agreement allows them to be in charge of carrying out international bids for the construction of the building system. Then, they will lease the property to the Costa Rican government.

After 25 years of rent, the bank will transfer the buildings to the government. The deal will allow the country to " save the approximately $23.5 million a year it currently pays in rents," said President Chaves. "This is a great opportunity to promote urban renewal, improve land use, and implement energy efficiency and bioclimatic strategies." 

According to Chaves, the bank will initially provide non-reimbursable funds to cover the cost of the studies of urban feasibility.

The plan is to transform approximately four blocks of the capital, to build government buildings.

In addition, the plan will allow the government to save the payment of rentals for public offices. This saved money would be used to pay off the loan.

Government City will be carried out in three phases and built on state-owned land. The first phase is a study corresponding to the feasibility of the project.

The second phase consists of constructing four buildings with more than 15 floors each and will be built with a construction area close to 178,000 square meters. The lower floors of shops will be constructed while the rest of the floors will house government offices.

In the third and final phase, government offices will relocate to the new building.

Due to the type of agreement, in which the bank is the developer, owner and lessor, the loan does not require congressional approval. Chaves expects this project to start next year.

This is not the first time the bank has developed this type of loan-lease deal in Costa Rica. Cabei participated as developer, owner and lessor of the Pailas I project, located approximately 17 km northeast of the city of Liberia, in Guanacaste. The construction and start-up of a geothermal power generation plant was financed with $225 million to provide power to about 75,500 houses.

Recently, Cabei also offered a $90.2 million loan to finance buildings or repairing of public schools. That one is part of the $700 million loan approved last year, to finance 2,500 urgent interventions such as roads, bridges, housing and railroad lines, among others, that were damaged by several tropical storms emergencies that affected the country in the last quarter of 2022.

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