The official survey plan for the Marina de Playas del Coco is now public record. Filed with Costa Rica’s National Registry as plano 2022-75692-C and approved by the CFIA in August 2023, it now sets the legal outline of the marina in the Carrillo town records. For the first time, the actual layout is on paper. Not a rendering. Not a press release. The surveyed plan.
Most coverage of this marina has repeated the same three numbers: $24.5 million, 299 berths, 25 hectares. The plan shows what those numbers translate into on the ground. A dredged harbor basin under the sea, breakwaters, an access channel, and a full working waterfront of buildings and services along the shore south of the main beach.
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What Changed: The Plan Is Public
Getting a marina approved in Costa Rica takes years. There are studies, public meetings, and permits before anyone digs. The plano catastrado (the survey map) is one of the main documents in that process. It sets the exact edges of the site, the survey points that mark it, and how every part of the land will be used.
That map is now open to the public through the town of Carrillo, which manages the marina for the government. The concession holder is ASODEMAC, the Asociación para el Desarrollo de la Marina del Coco, the same private association that has carried this project for more than two decades.
For anyone tracking the marina, this is the moment the plan stops being a concept. The layout below is read directly from that survey.
The Marina at a Glance
The headline figures are worth restating for context. The marina represents a private investment of roughly $24.5 million. It is designed for 299 berths for vessels between 12 and 40 meters. ASODEMAC and municipal officials have described it as the future main port of Costa Rica’s North Pacific, joining the small club of full service nearby marinas of Papagayo and Flamingo.
I’m excited to see this one, for a specific reason. Coco is the closest beach town to the Liberia airport, and it already runs a working fishing fleet and daily excursions. For a more polished day on the water, visitors currently drive on to Marina Papagayo or the newer marina at Flamingo. A full marina in Coco changes that. After landing at Liberia, a fisher could be on a boat here in about 45 minutes.
The full background on the investment, the economic case, and the two-decade path to approval is covered in the earlier report: how the new marina will transform Playas del Coco real estate. This update focuses on what the survey adds to that picture.
What the Plans Reveal
A survey plan is a technical document, so here is the plain-language version. The marina is not simply a set of docks bolted to the existing beach. It is a harbor built into the coast, protected by breakwaters, and lined with the buildings a working marina needs.
The Footprint: 25.37 Hectares, Broken Down
The 25-hectare figure is really 25.37 hectares, and the plan divides it into three distinct portions. Each has a different legal status, which changes how it can be used.
- The harbor basin (dársena) — 206,879 m² (about 20.7 ha). This is the largest portion by far, and it is water. The area is described as covered by the sea, the pool where boats float, turn, and dock. Roughly four out of every five hectares of the concession are the harbor itself.
- Firm land affected by the tide — 36,935 m² (about 3.7 ha). This is the dry land you can build on, the strip where the marina’s buildings will go. It leaves out a rock outcrop that the survey protects.
- Inalienable public zone — 9,899 m² (about 1 ha). Costa Rican law reserves the first strip of shoreline as public land that can never be privately owned. The plan accounts for it separately, as every coastal concession must.
The takeaway is scale. This is a large marine engineering project, and the majority of it is the harbor basin, not buildings.
The Layout: A Full Working Waterfront
The most useful part of the plan is the land-use legend. It labels every intended structure and zone inside the concession. Read together, these labels add up to a full working harbor, not just a parking lot for boats. The plan calls out:
- Berths and docks (atracaderos, muelles) — the 299 slips, plus a supply dock for fuel and gear.
- Breakwaters (rompeolas) — the walls that block the Pacific waves, with a gap that forms the entrance channel.
- A yacht club (club náutico) and a business lounge, the social heart of the marina.
- A commercial center and restaurants — retail and dining meant to draw visitors, not just boat owners.
- A harbor master’s office (capitanía de puerto) and government and admin buildings, where the port is run and managed.
- A fuel and service station, workshops, and boat storage — the service side that lets the marina run on its own.
- A yacht travel-lift crane (grúa izado de yates) — the big crane that lifts large boats out of the water for repairs.
- A wastewater treatment plant (planta de tratamiento) — required equipment that also helps the marina keep its environmental promises.
- Parking and green zones — visitor parking plus reforestation and landscaped areas placed through the site.
The number of docks is the detail that matters most for how Coco already works. The town runs a large fishing and tour fleet, but it has nowhere to berth those boats securely or to board them directly. Most operators still shuttle clients and supplies out by water taxi. Real berths change the daily routine. Clients walk straight to the boat. Gear and provisions load directly onto it. Each boat gets a secure place to stay between trips.
A boat tied up at a nearby Guanacaste marina. Coco’s fishing and tour fleet has no berths of its own yet, so crews still reach most boats by water taxi.
The design is a small commercial district on the water, not just a place to tie up a boat. If you want to understand how a specific property relates to this footprint, get in touch and we can walk through it.
Where the Marina Will Be
The concession is at the far south end of Coco beach, on the road toward Ocotal. This end of town has been slower to develop than the busier north end. That is the whole reason the project matters for the corridor. The south end has gone years without the infrastructure the rest of town takes for granted, and the marina is what finally moves it forward.
On a map, the marina is just past Playa Tinoco, at the furthest southern point of the beach. Its longest arm, the main breakwater, will extend out over a rock outcrop known as Isleta El Coco. Developments already line the way in, including Cocomarindo and Marina Lofts. Anyone who knows the drive toward Ocotal can place it exactly.
The plan also shows a new access channel cutting in from the open Pacific, public road access into the site, and a planned road widening tied to the municipality’s regulatory plan. The public beach corridor stays open to everyone. For property owners, that geography is the whole story. The parcels closest to the new value are along the southern corridor, not the built-out north end.
What It Means for Coco Real Estate
A public survey does two things for the market. It clears up doubt, and it shows the project is here to stay. Buyers who were waiting to see whether the marina was real now have a legal document that locks in where it goes and how big it is. That lifts prices nearby, because the risk that kept them low is gone.
The properties most exposed are the ones along the southern corridor toward Ocotal, near developments like Cocomarindo and Marina Lofts. This stretch has traded at a discount to the busy north end for years, mostly because it stayed underbuilt. A confirmed marina flips that logic. The infrastructure the south end has lacked now has a reason to arrive, and the parcels along the way are the first to feel it. It also gives listings a concrete reference point, since agents can point to the actual harbor footprint rather than a rumor.
None of this speeds up the clock. The marina is still years from taking boats. What changed is certainty. And certainty is what makes careful buyers act.
Timeline and Current Status
The concession was formalized between the Municipality of Carrillo and ASODEMAC in early 2025, and early-phase work has been underway since. The first phase is the access road and the water work to dig out the harbor. Full completion has been projected in the range of three to five years from the start of construction, placing it toward the end of the decade.
Every phase runs under the oversight of CIMAT, the national commission that governs marina projects in Costa Rica, covering engineering standards and water quality. The publication of the survey plan is a marker of how far the process has already traveled. Papers this detailed do not reach the public record until a project is on solid legal ground.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do the newly public marina plans actually show?
The plans are the official cadastral survey for the Marina de Playas del Coco concession, filed as plano 2022-75692-C. They fix the legal boundary of the 25.37-hectare concession and label the intended use of every zone inside it, including the harbor basin, breakwaters, access channel, yacht club, commercial center, harbor master’s office, fuel and service areas, workshops, a yacht travel-lift, a wastewater treatment plant, parking, and green zones.
How big is the Playas del Coco marina concession?
The total surveyed area is 253,713 square meters, or about 25.37 hectares. It divides into three portions: roughly 20.7 hectares of harbor basin under the sea, about 3.7 hectares of buildable firm land along the shore, and just under 1 hectare of inalienable public shoreline zone.
Who is building the Marina de Playas del Coco?
The concession holder is ASODEMAC, the Asociación para el Desarrollo de la Marina del Coco, a private association that has advanced the project for more than twenty years. The Municipality of Carrillo administers the concession on behalf of the state, and the national marina commission CIMAT oversees the works. The investment is roughly $24.5 million.
When will the marina be finished?
Completion has been projected in the range of three to five years from the start of construction, which places it toward the end of the decade. The concession was formalized in early 2025, and the first phase focuses on the access road and the marine works that form the harbor basin. The marina is still years away from receiving vessels.
Does the published plan affect property values in Playas del Coco?
A public survey removes uncertainty about whether and where the marina will be built, which tends to firm up pricing near the concession. Properties closest to the harbor footprint and the future access roads are the most exposed. Playas del Coco already trades below Flamingo and Tamarindo and is a 30-minute drive from Liberia’s international airport, and a confirmed marine hub narrows that gap.