There has to be financial closure in the deal between financiers and others involved in the construction of a US$52 million hotel/casino in the Kingston area before it can be made public, President Bharrat Jagdeo has said.
Asked who the financiers behind the hotel/casino earmarked for the historic Kingston area were, the President told the media on Friday at the Office of the President that when the developers of the project had closed the deal for funding with the bankers then all the details would be disclosed.
The project is being developed by a Pakistani businessman Michael Ahmad and an Italian, Natale Barranco, under the registered company Adam Development and Urbahn Associates (ADUA) with offices in Manhattan, New York.
At the turning of the sod to mark the ceremonial start of the project, Jagdeo said that all the information would be made available after the completion of the deal since at present, the parties involved were bound by a confidentially agreement.
Confidentiality, he continued, was a standard business practice in the case of all large projects, and he did not know why the opposition talked about lack of transparency in the negotiations for the project. “I don’t know why it is so different.
Any agreement that you sign would always have a confidentiality clause in the negotiating period. It is standard business practice,” he said. The opposition had agreed that once the project had been awarded confidentiality would have to be respected, but they were concerned about the opaque manner in which the government had awarded state lands to private overseas developers without going through a tender process.
Reminding that work had already begun on the project, the President said that the developers were only moving utility facilities and clearing the site. At present both works which the president spoke about were being undertaken by ADUA, which has rented local equipment to do the excavating and clearing of the land.
Stabroek News had made e-mail contact with Ahmad seeking an interview. However, this has not yet happened even though Ahmad expressed a willingness to speak to this newspaper.
In an interview with the television newscast, Capitol News, Ahmad and Barranco said that the US$52 million project was expected to be a four or five-star hotel.
They noted that they had been mum on the project because of confidentiality agreements with their bankers, among others.
The plan, they noted, dictated that they get a branding for the hotel and they had been in negotiations with the internationally renowned Marriott Hotel for the management of it.
To date the Marriott has acknowledged being in discussions with ADUA, but because there is no financial closure as yet the Marriott has not yet taken a decision on the branding. Ahmad noted that he had been visiting Guyana for several years now and had observed the need in the lodging market in Guyana. He approached the Guyana government for an investment in the sector to meet international standards about three to four years ago.
On application to the Marriott for the management of the hotel, Barranco said that the entire proposal had to undergo due diligence processes to ensure there was no allegation of impropriety.
It is expected that the building would be 10 stories high and cater for some 150 to 200 rooms.
The design of the building, the two explained, had been inspired by the boat-building activity conducted on the Kingston foreshore.
Prime Minister Sam Hinds, whose office is near to the project site and who is in steady contact with the developers told Stabroek News that he expected the project would start during the middle of this year and would be up and running in 2010. (Miranda La Rose)
