US-based developer Global Financial Group has announced plans for a US$300m (240m euro, £160m) resort in Costa Rica called the Azulera Resort Village.

Overlooking Brasilito Bay within the Guanacaste Province on the Pacific Coast, the centrepiece of the 557-acre (225 hectare) resort will be a bio-sensitive, 214-room Hyatt Regency hotel. Other facilities will include a Greg Norman-designed championship golf course, condominiums, townhouses, villas and private luxury homes.

The luxury Hyatt Regency Azulera hotel will be located within a 47-acre (19 hectare) tropical forest, stretching from the mountains to the Pacific coastline.

The Hyatt will boast open-air restaurants, a swimming pool with ocean views, a fitness centre and a holistic spa with Pompeian-style treatment rooms, a steamroom, a sauna and tropical gardens.

Commenting on the setting of the resort, Hyatt Hotels Corporation’s senior vice president of development, Victor Lopez, said: “Few locations boast more spectacular landscapes. Hyatt Regency Azulera will provide an elegant, yet unobtrusive retreat, where guests can enjoy the area’s dramatic scenery.”

Construction is scheduled to begin in July with the first phase of the project – the hotel and golf course – completed by the end of 2008. Details: www.azulera.com