[lupire]

World class means it attracts people from around the world.

It's 40 minutes from San Juan, which is on a relatively small island on the ocean.

And hurricanes have a habit of hitting there.

PR deserves great local institutions, but it is less accessible than most places that have much larger nearby population.

[shkkmo]

Puerto Rico is a fairly large (top 100 largest) island with international airports. It is larger than many other islands that have observatories.

Areceibo already WAS a world class telescope and was closer to an international airport than many other observatories.

The only valid point you've made is about hurricanes and earthquakes. However I haven't seen any discussion as to how those effect contruction costs at that site vs others.