| The government has so far failed to attract investors for its much touted Marriott Hotel Project, almost five years after intentions were announced.“Financial closure has not occurred and we’re still working with Marriot to conclude those outstanding aspects of the financial proposal that would see this project being implemented,” Head of the Presidential Secretariat said earlier this week.Marriott Hotel and Resorts last Monday said it would open a hotel in Guyana in 2013, repeating the same thing it said a year ago, but with little progress on any aspect of the project.An official of the Marriott chain told Kaieteur News that while the hotel is keen on extending its brand to Guyana, it would not be putting any money into the project.The deal is that the government would seek investors to build the hotel and once it is completed, then Marriott would take over management.Marriott first announced formally its intention to extend its brand to Guyana a year ago, though the government had talked of the project since 2006.This week, Luncheon said that the matter of “bringing investors on board and generating the financial package to get the go ahead for the commencement of construction” has not been finalised.When Marriott International announced the project last June, 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,Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale, 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,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, 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,Cheap China Jerseys, restaurant, nightclub,Jerseys NFL China, and others spaces that will be rented.Contractors had until August 20,Cheap Jerseys, 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),Jerseys From China, 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.”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. |
