Marriott Hotel lists Guyana in four-year plan

Jun 07, 2011 News

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… but Gov’t remains silent

Marriott Hotels and Resorts has announced plans to grow its flagship brand with 50 new hotels around the world, including one here in Guyana, but details about the local project are hard to come by.
Officials of the Guyana Office for Investment, the Privatisation Unit and the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, did not return calls for comments on the status of the project.
Marriott first officially announced the Guyana project last year June, but nothing has been heard of it since then and there has been no physical development of the project.

The government has been tight-lipped about any details and when asked has always contented that the project is still on.
Paula Butler, Senior Director, Global Public Relations, told Kaieteur News via email that Marriott would not be investing in the project, but would manage the hotel once it is open.
She could not say when construction is likely to start and suggested that Kaieteur News asks National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), whom she listed as the “the controlling owner” of the project.
“Mr. Winston Brassington, Executive Director of NICIL, was the principal owner representative during our negotiations,” Butler told Kaieteur News. Brasssington did not return calls for comment.
One year after it announced plans for the hotel in Guyana, Marriott yesterday again listed the project as one of the new hotels and resorts it plans to open in four years, representing a multi-billion dollar investment in the brand by owners and franchisees worldwide.
“We are thrilled to announce this major growth trajectory of new hotels, each with its own unique design and sense of place but the same high standard of service and amenities that Marriott Hotels & Resorts provides to discerning and high-achieving business, meeting and leisure travelers worldwide,” said Paul Cahill, senior vice president, brand management for Marriott Hotels and Resorts.
“In the South America, Marriott properties are under development in Cartagena, Colombia, on the Caribbean Sea, and in Guyana’s capital city of Georgetown,” Marriott stated in a press release, giving 2013 as the opening date.
When Marriott International announced the project, it said the state-of-the-art architectural and interior design concept for the Guyana Project would be created by the firm of Urbahn Architects (New York).
When Kaieteur News contacted the Guyana Office for Investment, first to ascertain who the new Chief Executive Officer is, the secretary said this question should be directed to the Minister of Tourism, Manniram Prashad, and abruptly disconnected the call.
When this newspaper contacted the office of Minister Prashad, we were told that he is out of office for the day. It turns out that Minister Prashad left Guyana Saturday for Trinidad and yesterday he was seen, along with the Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Ali, at the Queen’s Park Oval for the first One Day cricket match between West Indies and India.
In July 2010, the government placed advertisements in the newspapers asking for interested contractors to make pre-qualification applications for construction of the hotel in the Kingston area next to the Guyana Pegasus Hotel.
It was noted that the hotel will be operated by Marriott International and be built according to Marriott standards.
The works, it was advertised, would include the construction and erection of a 200,000 square- foot, 160-room hotel facility along with a 75,000 square foot “entertainment complex” outfitted with common services areas/amenities that will house a casino, restaurant, nightclub, and other spaces that will be rented.
Contractors had until August 20, 2010 to make an application to be pre-qualified.
According to Marriott International’s first announcement on the project, the hotel will operate under a management agreement with Atlantic Hotel Inc. (AHI), a company “currently owned by the Government of Guyana (GoG) as part of a public-private partnership between the Government of Guyana and private sector investors.”
However, the government continues it silence about the private sector partners. In mid-May, 2010, the government reacted angrily when Grenada company, Zublin Grenada, announced that it was seriously considering “a very attractive offer” by the Guyana Government to build the Marriott resort and casino.
Marriott International said the 160-room Georgetown Marriott Hotel is on track to receive LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and is on track to be Marriott’s first LEED hotel in the Caribbean and Latin America.
In December 2006, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved a master financing facility of up to US$42 million to finance up to eight Marriott-hotels in the Caribbean and Latin America, but Guyana was not included on the list.

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