Our Story
“No development or property is an island. We are all connected; and what one of us does, impacts us all.”
- The Tamarindo Park Foundation
Tamarindo Park aims to break down the separation so common today between humans and the natural world, embracing the beauty that the Tamarindo area has to offer in every aspect of the community’s design.
About 50 years ago, Claudio Cerdas Zúñiga, a humble man from Santa Cruz, Costa Rica, became greatly interested in the Tamarindo Bay region. Although the property value at that time was significantly lower than it is today, it was through great difficulties that he was able to become one of the first people to acquire land in the area. Don Claudio, or Cabito as people knew him, is regarded as one of the founders of Tamarindo due to the property he owned and the help he provided to the community, long before Tamarindo became the tourist attraction it is today.
At the time, Tamarindo was a remote destination for surfing and fishing with dirt roads, few buildings, and no phone lines (until 1996). However, in the years to follow, people would come from all corners of the world to buy and develop property in this small slice of paradise.
Our Board Members:
Sra. Lizbeth Cerdas Dinarte
Lic. Leonel Francisco Peralta Barrantes
Sr. Owen Héctor Cerdas
Ing. Carlos Roberto Pizarro Barrantes
Sr. Emel Rodríguez Paniagua
Our Preservation Efforts
If we remove a tree, we plant one to replace it. Our goal is to reduce our impact on the environment to the minimum and return to the land whatever is taken from it.
Short-Sighted Development Consumes Tamarindo.
Through the years, the area grew exponentially. And while it can’t be compared to other big beach towns around the world, Tamarindo has become a bustling city, very developed in comparison to many other Costa Rican beaches. As its popularity grew, developers raced in to meet the demand, cutting down everything in their way to build high-rise buildings and manmade landscapes.
Unfortunately, much of the infrastructure that is required to support an influx of people was at times overlooked, leading to problems with the water supply, waste management, and electricity, not to mention the loss from replacing so much of the natural habitat full of rich flora and fauna. Although efforts have been made to combat the negative effects generated through the years, many of the problems created long ago continue to affect the community.
The Tamarindo Park Foundation exists today because of what has happened in Tamarindo over the past 30 years, along with our desire to protect what is left for the environment, for the animals, for our residents, and for generations to come.
Our Land,
A Refuge of Biodiversity.
Now, what remains from our grandfather’s land, which has been passed on in the family, is considered one of the few green and untouched areas left in Tamarindo.
It lies on the border of Marino Las Baulas National Park, a protected area home to the coastline, an estuary, mangroves, and coral reefs. Each ecosystem plays an important role, helping to keep the land in balance and support a thriving population of diverse life.
The park’s namesake (Baulas) means leatherback turtles and is named so because of the endangered leatherback sea turtle population that nests in the area each year. The park is also home to iguanas, common and bottlenose dolphins, monkeys, anemones, sponges, lobsters, trunkfish, and pelicans.
As neighbors to this incredibly important and diverse park, we understand the immense responsibility to help embrace, protect, and support it. Furthermore, after seeing the way the rest of Tamarindo was developed and the consequences of that approach, we are committed to taking a different route.
Now we feel the stars have aligned to create our eco-conscious residential community project, bringing together like-minded developers, investors, and contemporary architect Richard Muller.
Having regained the area that is our family’s legacy, we were faced with the question, what comes next? What can we do to ensure the protection and growth of this area? Should we carry on with the ideas we once had or do we dare to dream bigger?
Blending Nature
and Community.
In the end, we realized that the Costa Rican way of life we want to create is one centered around the idea of sustainability and community. With the many developments in environmental protection, our desire was to find a way to create a project that incorporates the idea of a residential community that lives in harmony with nature.
While in many residential developments, you have to sacrifice space and seclusion for a state-of-the-art home and neighbors, Tamarindo Park brings both worlds together, blending nature and community.
Paths will meander around trees and hills, integrative agricultural systems will be developed, and modern tropical homes will nearly disappear into the natural environment to preserve not only the ecosystem but the privacy of the residents.
By developing the land in a way that is conscious of our surroundings and our impact, our residents will be able to live in intimacy with nature, getting a feel for the authentic Tamarindo my grandfather once knew and cherished, while being connected with a like-minded community.
The Role of the
Foundation.
Taking a sustainable and conscientious approach to residential development requires an abundance of research, care, and responsibility. For this reason, we have created the Tamarindo Park Foundation, an organization registered in Costa Rica to protect the environmental interests of our project and its surrounding areas.
The Foundation will move forward with three main initiatives: to conserve the environment, to provide environmental education, and to continue to research and develop new conservation strategies to help us become more efficient and effective in our efforts of protecting the delicate ecosystems that surround us.
Our primary purpose will be to ensure that our eco-footprint is minimized every step of the way. While we will need to move land and trees on occasion, we commit to always give back anything we take away.
Our plan also involves systems for the community so it will be sustainable, not taking too much from the land and not causing damage. From water treatment and reuse systems to electricity and waste management, we plan to minimize all impacts.
No development or property is an island. We are all connected and what one of us does, impacts us all. We would like to invest in the surrounding areas to promote conservation and create more outdoor areas for our community to enjoy.
Our grandfather treasured and valued helping other people, especially people in need, so when he owned land, he was very much willing to give it away to organizations in the community so they could develop and grow. That mindset lives on with us. We want to create a beautiful development, but we also want to help the Tamarindo community create more spaces that embrace and protect the natural beauty of the region.
At the Tamarindo Foundation, we are greatly looking forward to the development of Tamarindo Park; a new kind of residential community, that brings contemporary homes from a renowned designer into the lush and beautiful natural environment of Guanacaste: connecting the boundaries of nature and community. A place where you can live close to nature while walking softly on the land.
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