By Miranda La Rose
The developers of the ‘Georgetown Marriot Hotel and Casino Complex’ in Kingston have applied to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for environmental authorisation, to undertake the construction and operation of the hotel and casino.
Meanwhile, observers are questioning the experience of the developers in construction of the facility, which may cost an estimated US$52 million, and the sources of funding.
A notice to the public in yesterday’s edition of the Guyana Chronicle gave notice that Adam Development/Urbahn Associates (ADUA) has submitted an application to undertake the construction of the facility at the Sea Wall Battery Road, Kingston, Georgetown which would entail the removal of buildings, pile driving and general construction and operations.
However, the New York-based developers have already demolished the building that formerly housed the Government Food and Drug and Analyst Department, the former Luckhoo Swimming Pool and a bond.
They also levelled the area, started building up the land and have diverted to another area further away the sewage pipes that in the past emptied into the Atlantic in the vicinity earmarked for the development.
The notice was given in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act No 11, 1996, in which an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was required for the building before any decision to approve or reject the proposed project was undertaken, since the development may have significant impact on the environment.
Members of the public are invited to make written submissions to the EPA setting out the questions and matters which they need to be answered or considered in the EIA.
The notice also said that a summary of the project can be uplifted at the Environmental Assessment Board at the University of Guyana, Turkeyen Campus at a reasonable cost for the photocopying of the documents.
Adam Development, with offices at 249-02 Jericho Turnpike, Suite 205, Floral Park, NY 11001, advertises itself as “a full-service construction company with experience in new private and institutional buildings, historic restorations, masonry and concrete work and demolitions. Our personnel provide developers, private and public sector clients with exceptional service.” It also claims “a team of highly professional experts that combines the hands-on, personal service of a family-owned business with over fifty years of combined worldwide experience of our principals.”
A search of the New York City Department of Transport found that Adam Development, headed by Pakistani Mike Ahmad has had just three permits from New York City. According to the New York Buildings Department, two of the three permits were revoked.
Stabroek News has sought an interview with Ahmad but has been unsuccessful to date. However, one of the partners Natale Barranco, of Urbahn Associates has written to the Stabroek News agreeing to an interview in April, when he said he was due back in Georgetown.
Meanwhile, to date President Bharrat Jagdeo has failed to disclose any details of the investors – whom he described as a conglomerate – owing to confidentiality agreements. He had said that this information would not be made public until there was closure in the deal among the financiers of the project and others involved in the construction of hotel/casino.
Even though the project is being advertised as the “Georgetown Marriot Hotel and Casino Complex’ by the EPA, when Stabroek News last spoke with the Vice President of Marriott Hotels with responsibility for Latin America and the Caribbean, Rodolfo Guillioli last month, he had said that no decision had been taken by Marriott Hotels as to whether it would be operating and managing the hotel.
Opposition political parties have also questioned the lack of transparency in the major investment.
PNCR Chairman Winston Murray had said that for the government to maintain its own integrity and the integrity of the Kingston hotel project, it needed to put all the information on it in the public domain.
Expressing concern about the lack of transparency in the awarding of the land to a consortium of unknown investors for the construction of the hotel and casino, he had said that the project itself was just one glaring classical example of the lack of transparency since there was bidding for the land and no one knew on what terms and conditions the property was awarded and to whom.
Stating that he had seen no need for confidentiality in the awarding of state land, he said that the government did itself no good by getting into transactions in an opaque manner since it left room for rumours to run rife in the society which is not in the national interests since rumours tend to take on additional dimensions.
