One thing that can be said about the cities in Costa Rica is that they have grown in a very disorganized fashion, especially in the capital, San José, where the lack of planning has taken its toll and makes for traffic problems, flooding, and visual contamination among many other issues.

Many developers coincide that one of the solutions is opting for vertical building, and that modality is now beginning to be noticeable in the San José landscape; however, until now it has always been said that Costa Rica doesn’t have skyscrapers, only tall buildings.
This changed on March 24, when the Council on tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) recognized the building “Torres de Paseo Colón” as Costa Rica’s first skyscraper, exceeding 100 meters in height, (328 feet).

“We are very pleased to be part of this change. We are also very pleased of having the first skyscraper in the country, a project that reflects quality, the immensity of the details that have to be considered when we are working in a vertical construction”, said Jose Luis Salinas, President of Grupo Inmobiliario del Parque (GIP) developer of Torres de Paseo Colón.

“This is an example that we can create great infrastructure and battle the problems related to population density. We are already thinking about the future, this one will not be the last, we need to stop constructing horizontally, not just in San José, but also in the other provinces where people are extending the urbanization to agricultural areas instead of taking advantage of the height”, added Ronald Steinvorth President of IECA International.

More skyscrapers are coming to San José:

Last year, real estate developer Omnia informed of its plan to build “Torre 40”, a 40 floor building, 150 meters high skyscraper, also in Paseo Colon.

Torre 40 involves an investment of $35 million USD and is expected to be inaugurated in 2019; it will be LEED certified as sustainable development edification. The last floor of this skyscraper will have a Skylounge restaurant that will offer a 360⁰ view of the central valley.