City claims gov’t bullied away Kingston land for Marriott

Aug 21, 2011 News

---

 

 

 

–    Eddy Grant wanted to develop cultural complex

City Mayor Hamilton Green is claiming that part of the land the government has put into the hands of the developers of the Marriott Project belonged to the City Council, but the land was bullied away without its knowledge.
“We had no conversation about it,” Green said when contacted by Kaieteur News yesterday.
He was referring to the fact that the hotel plans submitted for the project seems to indicate that the project would encompass the area that was once the Luckhoo Swimming Pool – property of the Council.
The Mayor said that the Council was receiving project proposals for the said area. Green said that among the proposals was one by international Guyanese singing superstar Eddy Grant, who wanted to construct a cultural complex. That proposal was being given favourable consideration, the Mayor said.
However, Green said that he received a call from President Bharrat Jagdeo telling him not to bother with those proposals, for there is a much bigger project for the area. At that time, Green said he did not know that the project the President was talking about was the Marriott Project.
It was when the plans for the area were submitted that Green said it was realised that the piece of land, known as Block “Alpha” Kingston, on which the Marriott Hotel would be situated, included the Council’s land.

The Mayor said there was no indication to the Council regarding the takeover of the land, nor was any compensation discussed. The swimming pool was named after former Mayor Lionel Luckhoo, and there was no concrete effort to restore it.
But the Council was interested in having the property converted to favourable use.
On November 23, 2010, the Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, used his powers under the Public Corporations Act 1998 to transfer the “state land” to the state-owned National Industrial Commercial Investment Limited (NICIL), the body which acquires and holds government shares, stocks, debentures or other securities of any company, and such like bodies.
The plot of land in question measures 6.88 acres.
The application for approval to build the Marriott Hotel was submitted to the City Engineer in the name of Winston Brassington, who was acting on behalf of Atlantic Hotel Incorporated (AHI), the company which was set up by the government to oversee the construction of a Marriott branded hotel.
Brassington is also the chairman of NICIL, to which the land was transferred.
Mayor Green said that there is nothing the cash-strapped Council could do at this time, but to hope that some revenues accrue to it when the hotel is completed.
In June this year, Marriott Hotels and Resorts 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 remain sketchy.
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 tightlipped 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.
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).
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.
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.
According to Marriott International’s first announcement on the project, the hotel will operate under a management agreement with Atlantic Hotel Incorporated, 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.”
Recently, President Bharrat Jagdeo announced the Zublin Grenada would construct the hotel.
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.

---

---