In February 2016, President Luis Guillermo Solís signed a decree to declare the Government City Project as a national interest, with the aim of building a “modern and innovative building complex” for public institutions, and thus lower the amount of State rents.
According to that decree the area would cover more than 14,000 m² distributed in six office towers and parking to accommodate up to five thousand vehicles, that would help them save approximately ¢32 billion annually.
Six entities would be taken into account, such as the Ministry of Planning (Mideplan), the Ministry of Housing, the General Directorate of the Civil Service, the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses, the Ministry of the Interior and Police, the National Directorate of Migration and Immigration, among others.
The new Executive Power will analyze a proposal to reach the Government City, a project proposed several times in the last two decades. Otto Vargas, from Republican Social Christian Party (PRSC), consulted the Finance Minister, Rocio Aguilar, for the possibility of lowering rents.
Aguilar said that for 20 years several projects for the so-called Government City were put on the table. But she pointed out that last year the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) conducted preliminary studies for the plan. According to Aguilar it will be discussed within the Executive Branch of Carlos Alvarado.
The Minister explained that land and sites in the vicinity of Plaza González Víquez will be taken into account. It would be integrated with the railway station and on the south side with Parque de la Paz.
The former comptroller mentioned that the levels of savings and the cost-benefit of the project must be determined in order to make an investment decision, since it would be competed with other investment plans.
In June 2017, the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic denied the endorsement of the memorandum of agreement signed between the Ministry of Public Works and Transportation ( MOPT ) and the United Nations Office for Project Services (Unops) to build a large building for that institution, which would cost more than $ 98 million.