The seventh JW Marriott Hotel in Latin America will  open in 2008 in Guanacaste under a franchise agreement reached between Marriott International, Inc. and Hotel Real de Pinilla, S.A., a subsidiary of  Grupo Poma of El Salvador, the firms said Tuesday.

Grupo Poma’s hotel division, known as Real Hotels & Resorts, has 23 properties including the Puebla Marriott Hotel in Mexico and the Courtyard by Marriott Panama City, Panama, and will manage the  resort.

When opened, the 310-room JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort & Spa will be the fourth Marriott  International-branded property in Costa Rica.
It will be located on a Pacific beachfront site in the 4,000-acre Hacienda Pinilla Beach Resort and residential community development that also contains an existing 18-hole golf course, an equestrian center, tennis courts, villas and beach houses. The project team includes the Zurcher Architects as the project architect and Paul Duesing Partners as the interior designer.

The project is on the Pacific coast of the Nicoya Peninsula just south of Playa Tamarindo. Daniel  Oduber Liberia International Airport is located approximately 50 miles away to the north and east.

“We are delighted to be working with Real Hotels & Resorts on this exciting and beautiful resort hotel and to see our award-winning JW Marriott brand grow in  Latin America,” said Ed Fuller, president and managing director of international lodging for Marriott International.  “Costa Rica is a world-class leisure destination, especially for ecotourism, and attracts a diverse group of visitors. Coupled with our JW Marriott’s global reputation for unsurpassed, relaxed luxury and ambience, we are confident this resort will be an instant success.”

The resort’s 310 rooms will include up to 30 executive level guest rooms and up to 10 stand alone casita  units.

For dining and entertainment, the resort will have an all-day restaurant featuring terrace seating; two specialty restaurants serving lunch and dinner, a pool bar and grill, a café kiosk and a lobby lounge and bar. Recreational amenities will include a 13,500  square-foot health club and spa featuring 18 treatment rooms, saunas, steam rooms, a beauty salon, a spa shop and a fitness center.

Water sports activities will include a swimming pool, jet-skiing, diving, snorkeling and fishing.  A kids club will be located near the spa.  Golf will be available at an 18-hole golf course and clubhouse included in the  overall complex. Additionally, the resort will have a business center.

For conferences and social events, the JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort & Spa will boast more than 5,500 square feet of flexible meeting space.  Included will be a ballroom offering  more than 3,000 square feet and three meeting rooms in varying configurations.

Intel Corp., the computer chip maker that has facilities in Costa Rica, said Tuesday that it would cut about 7 percent of its work force by the end of the year.

The company said that some 3,000 more would be let go by the middle of next year.

There were no specifics on how this cutback would affect Costa Rica, and inquires to the corporate headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., went unanswered.

The company announced plans for restructuring following an analysis of the company’s structure and efficiency, it said. As a result of the restructuring, the company expects to generate savings in costs and operating expenses of approximately $2 billion in 2007. In 2008 the company expects savings from this restructuring to grow to approximately $3 billion annually, according to the announcement.

The savings are a combination of non-workforce related steps and a significant reduction in Intel’s workforce, it said. The company’s employee population will decline to approximately 95,000 by the end of this year, resulting from workforce reductions, attrition and previously announced actions. The workforce will decline to approximately 92,000 by the middle of 2007 — 10,500 fewer than the company’s employee population at the end of the second quarter of 2006. In addition to the savings from the workforce reduction, the company expects savings in merchandising expenses, capital and materials, it said.

“These actions, while difficult, are essential to Intel becoming a more agile and efficient company, not just for this year or the next, but for years to come,” said Paul Otellini, Intel president and chief executive officer.

Most job reductions this year will occur in management, marketing and information technology functions, reductions related to the previously announced sale of businesses, and attrition, said the announcement. In 2007, the reductions will be more
broadly based as Intel improves labor efficiency in manufacturing, improves equipment utilization, eliminates organizational redundancies, and improves product design methods and processes, it said.

In 2008, the company expects the cost and operating expense savings from this restructuring to grow to approximately $3 billion as it achieves the full-year run rate on the projects implemented in 2007. In addition, Intel expects to save $1 billion by better utilizing manufacturing equipment and space. The company expects that approximately 25 percent of the project’s savings in 2007 will reduce cost of sales, and the rest will reduce operating expenses.

The company said it expects severance costs to total approximately $200 million, offsetting some of the expected savings from the project’s implementation.