Cabo Tierra Vision Statement

A sustainable Wellness retreat and learning center

Cabo Tierra Wellness and learning center in beautiful Tamarindo, Guanacaste is proposed as a private sustainable eco minded boutique wellness retreat and learning center catering to groups or offering suites on a weekly basis.

The most efficient way of running it is to market to groups of up to 40 and provide top hospitality and privacy for small groups. I am 5 minutes outside the number 1 tourist destination in Costa Rica, Tamarindo Beach and 35 minutes from a brand new International airport in Liberia Guanacaste and located here

Cabo Tierra Wellness Lodge at Finca Ilsa Angel

Pictured is one of my favorite unit designs. Picture something slightly bigger with a more substantial deck and an outdoor tree house Jacuzzi. IEach non tree house unit will be named after an exotic fruit tree and this current phase includes siting the major features and planting said fruit trees so if say a family rents the Toronja( Grapefruit) suite we will plant a grapefruit this year outside the suite providing a talking point for a return visits, Like remember when we were here 5 years ago and this was only 5 feet tall now we are picking grapefruits for our breakfast. Overall I am going for a Garden of Eden Vibe with lots of tropical fruit trees. The front third of my property is covered w mature fruit trees and I could literally fill a semi trailer with mangos from three trees and the selection includes oranges, limes, cashew trees, avocado etc and I planted 50 more before I left and it still looks spare back there

FEATURES

10 2 BR FREE STANDING UNITS IN A TREE HOUSE STYLE
- While my property will support 3 actual tree houses the rest will be raised 4-5 feet off the ground to lend the tree house impression
- Each unit will be a 1 br w a sitting room, loft, and efficiency kitchen so a functional 2 br.The loft will allow 2 twin beds and an adult will be able to stand. Each unit will be roughly 800 sq feet with a 10×20 deck and will be built in a rustic manner with native hardwoods and thus will be much more than a hotel room
Lagoon style pool w natural rock formation and deck for sun bathing
Large fish pond with harvestable fresh fish(Koi or Tilapia) for dinner with fountains at each end to aerate the pond and keep it sustainable
greenhouse for fresh vegetables and to continue sustainability theme
Yoga Lodge that doubles as a reception desk and an open air Wellness studio done in the Bali style suitable for yoga, meditation, Indian healing ceremonies and as a small meeting place for whatever the group of the week wishes to use it for. All wellness sessions will be live streamed under the Cabo Tierra brand for a possible online following of our wellness curriculum and another potential income stream. Lodge building will also contain a managers apartment and will lead back to an informal outdoor eating area that will house a commercial kitchen that I plan to crank up 24 hours a day. continuing back will be a sauna and a steam room. Bottom line I want a kitchen that can cater to 100 guests whether I build a catering team or outsource catering gigs on a cost plus 20% basis I have not decided yet. I am guessing Weddings on the beach will become an instrumental aspect of our business. Wedding party of up to 40 has the facility to themselves then we truck the poor slobs down to the beach to tie the knot

This will be marketed as an eco village and as a model for such small sustainable communities

My ex marine buddy Andre who I love like a brother and who is also a pilot and coincidentally has an 11 year old will help me run the place and is into Yoga, healing and all that jazz will be my wellness coordinator is developing the above image into the Cabo Tierra Brand which will include this Indian goddess reaping the harvest with a cornucopia. This Wellness brand has many potential offshoots. We are discussing a juice line using materials readily available near me. There is a Mango processing plant 30 minutes away. Our first wellness drink will be a Mango Coconut water with this gal on the bottle in some form. This is secondary and well down the road. Cabo Tierra translates into Cape Earth and is a metaphor for sustainability and a brand I created for my Oyster Farm in Dennis 25 years ago. A Cape is a narrow stretch of land jutting into the ocean which while vulnerable to weather and conditions is worthy of care and conservation but is also abundant because of its relationship to the ocean much like our own Cape Cod. Coincidentally my property is located in an area called Cabo Velas which translates to Cape Candle( Don’t ask)

MARKETING

For the last 20 years in order to pay the rent I formed an Internet Marketing consulting agency with a little office literally on the beach and filled hotel rooms and real estate offices for such brands as Best Western, Coldwell Banker,ReMax and literally every single real estate office on the coast at some point and for a time I held the number 1 position for Costa Rica Real Estate on Google which made my clients lots of money. I am very good at this stuff. However filling hotel rooms was my particular specialty and the secret was using Facebook advertising to market to Costa Ricans in Spanish. The Costa Rican city dwellers and a mastery of Spanish were my secret weapon, surprisingly even for high end luxury stuff. They have money and love the beach its just a question of knowing how to tap them. I became so good at digital marketing universities and business groups began inviting me to give speeches on it which I hate doing but it generated strong international business for me. Now I will put that expertise to use for us

Below is a speech I gave on the subject to a group of businessmen in Jaco. I was at the University of Tampa to give a speech when I had the stroke. If I had been in Costa Rica I would be dead.

Pictured: View from the front of the farm showing 3 of the trees towards back of my property that will support tree houses. This field has always been a cow pasture so its a blank canvas and we can make it our garden of eden or anything we want. Fence and Property line is visible in the distance Neighbor across that fence raises bulls for the rodeos. The land is 2 acres and is on a dead end road that ends at a river. There is one 3 acre parcel between me and the river that I want but we do not need as I do not want anything too big to manage. Either way I am going to have Mark use a straw to make an offer on it when he goes down to supervise this work

Pictured is the ocean in relation to my property the iglesia catolica(catholic church)pictured is 50 yards from my property and the dirt road in front of my farm twists and wends its way to no fewer than 7 of the most beautiful beaches in the world without crossing an asphalt road. These include;

Playa Tamarindo
Playa Grande
Playa Ventanas
Playa Minas
Bahia Piratas
Puerto Viejo
Playa Conchal
Bottom line is the twisting winding dirt roads that take one through Costa Rican farm land and a simpler way of life unchanged in 100 years remains the single greatest tourist attraction I will be offering not to mention that Tamarindo beach is the number 1 tourist destination in Costa Rica. Of course getting to Tamarindo from my farm requires crossing a few rivers and a crocodile infested estuary but the tourists eat that shit up which is why we will be outfitting a heavily branded tourism truck that will offer daily scenic rides to various beaches and will be an outfitted F-150 with a canopy and bench seating for 10-20 in back that will possibly double as a food truck I am not sure on that one yet. My Marine buddy is also a welder and a car nut and will outfit that truck for us and paint the branding on the truck I want a mobile sign that people see every day.

Pictured above is the 4th draft from my architect/builder we have worked on over the last year. What you will notice is that the lagoon which is the fish pond horseshoe wraps around the public pool area with small footbridges over the pond leading to the units from the pool area

Unit designs

Scope of Work Phase 1

The Scope of work at the farm is to provide a healthy, stong and beautiful hedge around the upper part of your property approx 700 feet of hedge.

The choice by design was predominantly Limoncilio ( a member of the lime tree family) planted every foot on center for the entire back yard and complement that hedge with groupings of flowered plants such as Bouganvilla, Hibiscus and variegated tees. The designer and contractor will place hedge where needed providing sporadic groups of flowering plants and vines to create an enclosed but exotic and tropical atmosphere.

Also the owner has requested a fruit tree at each proposed Cabin (10) so the contractor will locate all 10 Cabins and strategically place those 10 new fruit trees so they will grow to be mature trees and shade those cabins , as well as, provide fruits to the project.

It is essential the contractor place the hedge plants (some 800) at 1 foot intervals around the perimeter and place a water system of irrigation to irrigate all new plantings proposed and water existing trees and 10 new trees at cabin locations.

The irrigation lines proposed are two different 1/2 inch lines, one with irrigation holes and one without for service lines.

1. 800 feet of line is an irrigation type of line with watering holes installed every 1 foot in the line for drip style watering in a line ( or hedge).

2. There is also 200 feet of 1/2 line to carry water to trees and to service the irrigation lines placed from the water source. Then a drip styled faucet (8 gallons per minute) plug at end is installed at each tree location for maximum and controlled watering of the new trees ( or timed watering)

3. The water is delivered from the street water and or the onsite well. The contractor will install a system to regulate either street water to irrigation lines or closed and only well water will irrigate ( by a series of gate valves to control water directions at well). From the well and after valves the owner can direct street or well water to a holding tank ( 1100 liters that I already bought) atop the existing Bodega. The contractor will need to build a new metal post tower to support the water tank storage on or near the bodega. A 1 inch line from the well pump to he new water tank will allow the well water to collect in the new tank from below in the well via a new well cleaned out to 6 meters and a new submersible 1/2 horse powered well pump. The well pump will be powered from the existing home near the bathroom and with # 12 cable to the well pump up the wall to a kill switch inline and waterproof breaker box then on to the new tank to control the new tank float switch ( so the tank does not overflow).. From there the water needs to go thru an additional pressure pump (1/4 horse) to the field or shut off and the street pressure is used to irrigate the field and hedges. This is a great system, a complete solution to a long term garden with multiple options and future plantings.

Remember this planting is only the beginning of the final Landscape plan proposed by Owner.

Contractor has Quotations for all materials to do the above work and here is the breakdown with Price, Cot # number, contact and Phone numbers.

1. Plants and Flowers, as per quotation inclosed in this Email below. ` c 935,000

2. Irrigation PVC lines and valves, et all, PVC Amanco, Cotization # 138, Luis 2653-6330 c 173,489

3. Water tank, well pump, assories, Water Pump Solutions, Cot # 000068255, Carlos, 7112-4367 c 213,000

4. Electrical wire for pump and Weatherproof Breaker box, Cot # 284, Juan 8563-2810 c 66,479

5. The new tank elevated platform by bodega to support tank in metal posts and concrete, Comaco, #661728, 8708-8091 c 98,470

6. To clean out well water, and dig down 2 more meters for fresh water to 6 meters is 2 day process, Faustino, 7183-5862 c 70,000

7. The work of the phase, as described is 3 workers and me 3 days. Also we need a welder to help build the platform. This is a lot of work and accuracy to place homes and trees will take time and some additional cabin location stakes, string lines, and a new 30 meter tape to get the new trees correctly placed. no simple task. $650

Total cost for labor and materials to complete Phase 1 $ 3202

Note

#1,#2 and just hooking up to street water and labor to install is c935,000+ c173,489+ $400 = $2270 and that includes all irrigation lines to hedges and 20 trees ( 10 old and 10 new trees) plus varied flowering plants along walls. This bid is far more complete,( than your other $2000 bid and theirs is incomplete), more inclusive and a better system than what was told to me by other bids. Of course, the best system to insure longevity and best future uses and landscaping is the total contract as described above by number.

I I want this to go smooth and I think I have designed a system that is highly efficient, regulated, and will service the new plants, the old and new trees and any future landscaping, if followed by this design and my expertise to layout this big project properly and correctly as to plan, no guesses!!

Staffing

first and foremost employee costs there are considerably less for instance a cook to run our kitchen will run under 10 bucks an hour and we will need in my estimation a

live in manager partially in trade for front desk duties and arranging tours which are commissionable
chamber maid with only 10 units 1 girl can probably manage it we will see
driver/landscaper(I have the guy)
night watchman(I have the guy)

My neighbor who loves me has 6 kids from 2-16

These will be my employee

PROGRAMS

Our wellness center will be capable of being used by many types of groups but putting these groups together ourselves is the bread and butter. Here are trips and weeks I think will be winners

YOGA AND YOGA INSTRUCTOR TRAINING
INDIAN HEALING W AYAHUASCA
1. this will be big for us. Indian healing ceremonies are led by an Indian Shaman and include supervised ingestion of an organic hallucinogenic and the guest trips their brains out. 60 minutes showed that these kinds of hallucinogenic therapies cure people of addiction, anxiety and can be truly life changing experiences. You and I will try it one day, Also completely legal there
2. VETERANS GROUPS
3. Womens and mens groups
4. US CLASSROOMS
5. INMATES(THROUGH CROWD FUNDING) We set up non profits to crowd fund programs that send worthwhile groups to our wellness center we get paid they get some wellness

Money making scenarios

Ok I am going to give you one and is why I mentioned Mark as a client first as opposed to investor. Clearly this scenario can be reproduced with anybody with a following and the scenario w Mark runs as follows;

Mark wants to bring a group of 30 people down and teach them to make chocolate which Costa Rica is famous for and our kitchen will handle easily. Mark charges each guest 2 grand and he and any such group pays the house 20 grand for a weeks accommodation and breakfast with daily excursions to the beach. House stays on pace to generate 80k per month or $960k per year for the house and Mark clears 40k for a weeks work not a bad incentive for other groups which can and hopefully will include

Womens groups
therapists and healers
North american yoga studios
this list is endless

Area Factors

I have mentioned we are just outside Tamarindo the number 1 tourist destination in Costa Rica but other factors contribute to the strength of this deal and its important to understand the changes taking place nearby.

1 mile from my property is Reserva Conchal considered the most beatiful beach front resort in the country which boasts an 18 hole championship Robert Trent Jones golf Course and a 5 star Westin hotel
10 minutes north of me is Flamingo beach where you and your buddy the hoover vacuum stayed 17 years ago . They are opening phase 1 of a 200 slip deep water marina later this year and Flamingo is turning very ritzy
Costa Rica is the most ecologically progressive country in the world and our site is the perfect starting point for the increasingly popular eco tourism vacations and a World Heritage site is just north of me on which I wrote an article here.

Timeline

Mark has agreed to go down on his own dime with his environmental scientist son to supervise the work and check my due diligence. I want you to arrange to pass the 5 grand to him and he will disburse saving us nonsense lawyer fees for things like disbursements I need this to happen this month or no later than next month to accommodate Marks busy schedule and to get these plants in the ground while its still rainy season and the ground is workable. We should be good through 2022 I will cover extraneous costs to maintain work being done here. Next outlay will be 30k in april 2023 for permits and first cabin and greenhouse construction which I will live in with the builder starting in May to supervise the heavy lifting Then a 5 month building process to complete the rest with a roughly 350k outlay over a 5 month period. The plan is then to test run the facility with the staff October through December using the Costa Ricans as a test market and then open in earnest in 2024. The time I spend there as construction continues will also be a time to begin to make relationships w suppliers and to market the first programs for 2024

ELEGANCE

Rich this is a factor that is difficult to quantify but which for me screams elegant solution( which I love and strive for) and why I consider this a legacy project for us.Abutting my property is a one room school house kindergarden to fifth and we will be working with these kids who are all the kids of local farmers for the next 20 years. Bottom line if we fund one Environmental science scholarship we will have done more good in my opinion than all the assholes I graduated with from the ivy league who could not wait to go sit behind a desk and work for Morgan Stanley and brag about it and who are all divorced and miserable to a man. With the people that pass through our place building scholarship funds for these kids will be a no brainer and hopefully these kids will run with our sustainable model long after you and I are gone.

I LIKE THAT!

FINALLY

Richard we will be forming an LLC corp down there which will be Cabo Tierra Limitada and open a bank account. You mentioned the cost which is a bit more than the states but we are using the most respected attorneys office in the country going rate about $800 so there may be $800 to a grand left over on this first phase which we will simply bank. There are also a few items not listed here including 30 additional trees that I added including night flowering Jasmine and Kumquats also the surveying and clearing costs are not mentioned we will get out of this for $4500 but getting a lot done including formal renderings suitable for permitting when ready. Bottom line every penny will be accounted for or otherwise banked. It is also my intention to hire a proper accountant right from the start to keep the books and keep us in order. We are using the best attorneys in the country so we do not come back to find some corrupt attorneys office usurping the ownership of our property. Worth the extra. I will guarantee your 5 grand against the property or draw it up as an option your call and have the attorney draw up the proper paperwork to that effect. Stay well