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Still no buyer for Cacique Palace
… monies owed to the Consolidated Fund still outstanding – Keith Burrowes
The incomplete Cacique Palace and Banquet Hall is still on the market, with no buyers
By Gary Eleazar
Even as Government is forging ahead to construct a US$50M Georgetown Marriott Hotel, it is still looking for a buyer willing to pay the US$4M to US$5M being sought for the Cacique Palace and Banquet Hall.
This was confirmed yesterday by the Government Official closely associated with the sale, Keith Burrowes. That edifice is located aback of the Princess International Hotel at Providence on the East Bank Demerara, and was supposed to have been completed in time for Cricket World Cup 2007.
Burrowes told this publication that there have been some offers, but nothing close to what the Government is looking to secure.
According to the official, while there are still persons expressing an interest in the incomplete structure, the offers that have been forthcoming are way below par.
He said that the proposals that the Guyana Government have been receiving range between US$1M and US$2M.
Burrowes did confirm that the proposals have been coming from both local and overseas investors.
Asked about any special incentive for local buyers, given the amount of time the hotel has been on the market, Burrowes said that the Government had initially been looking for about US$7M.
He was also asked about the sale process, to which he was adamant that there is no selective tendering involved, and assured that the sale of the hotel is being undertaken through a public tendering process.
Government had taken over the property from its original investors, Bobby Smith and Beverly Arthur, after they had failed to secure the finances to complete the hotel.
At the time, the government through its then President, Bharrat Jagdeo, had facilitated a $30M loan from the Consolidated Fund.
That money was turned over on the agreement that it was an advance payment for rooms, but the hotel is still to be completed, and as such has never been opened for business.
Burrowes confirmed yesterday that the money will be repaid when the hotel has been sold.
The Cacique Palace was supposed to have offered – in addition to the scores of rooms – a banquet hall that could cater for about 700 persons, three catering restaurants, a storage room, a second-floor pool, 21 suites (including two with presidential facilities) and tuck shops.
The property boasts land measuring approximately 226,512 square feet with two buildings comprising 45 apartments, conference facilities, a catering centre, restaurant, swimming pool and recreational facilities.
Work on the hotel, originally slated as a US$3.5 million project, began at the end of January 2006, and was to have been completed by the end of the same year.
In addition to the suites, plans were also in train for recreational facilities, shops, a gym, massage parlour and spa, and a business centre.
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