New owners of Hotel Rey plan big changes.
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

New ownership means biggest changes for Hotel Del Rey since 1992. The Hotel Del Rey will break ground soon on a state of the art bath house across Calle 9 from the existing hotel. The bath house will go up on what is now a parking lot at the southeast corner of the block bordered on the south by Avenida 1. The building will have a pool, steam room, sauna, maze and rooftop sun deck. The existing distinctive structures that are the Key Largo night club and the Café Del Mar (former Gurdián home) will be preserved in the plan. Architects incorporated both structures into the development.

Gregory Ruzicka, a spokesperson for the old owners, said the new owners are looking for a new name because the name "Del Rey" is associated in the public mind as the place where entrepreneurial women meet men. The new owners said the existing Hotel Del Rey will remain the way it is now with a casino, restaurant and a bar on the first floor. It would still facilitate meetings between male tourists and prostitutes. But yes they were definitely looking for a new name, two possibilities are the “Gay Rey” or the “Del Gay”. One thing they definitely will not change is the pink color of the hotel, it was the hotel color and night time activities at the park that first attracted the new owners to the site.

Rodrigo Castro, minister of Turismo states that his ministry has no knowledge that the Del Rey foments prostitution. He also said that Costa Rica's tourism is based on nature and adventure, not sex tourism. Castro went on to say that the hotel is working within the letter of the law and is fully licensed as a hotel, bar and casino and if the meeting between prostitutes and tourists is facilitated, it would be just as legal whether the prostitute was male or female..

The new owners are not anticipating any problems, they stated that they had their attorney come out of retirement and make the 6 hour trip down here from upstate Florida, a dozen times since this past November, to negotiate the deal and get approval for their planned changes from the Consejo Municipal of San José.

I see this one coming a mile away... April Fools...

had their attorney come out of retirement and make the 6 hour trip down here from upstate Florida, a dozen times since this past November