The Hotel Tower is rising again

The Hotel Tower is rising again – under new management and with a focus on change. It used to be the city’s showpiece hotel, the facility of choice for important visitors to Guyana; and the bar used to be frequented mostly by the well-to-do. Time was when the Hotel Tower helped separate the haves from the have nots

Things have changed. The Hotel Tower fell on hard times and the patrons with their images to protect drifted away to haunts that had their ‘reputations’ to protect; and now that the Tower is re-emerging, its appearance has been transformed, mostly by the market. The austere façade has gone; true, the new Tower still aspires to reclaim its former reputation but on the whole the facility has been transformed significantly. Nightlife exists cheek by jowl with room and board.

The exterior of the new look Tower Hotel

The current owners took it over in 2009. It was, they said, in bad shape; pest-infested with non-functional bathroom fittings, dysfunctional central air conditioning and run-down rooms. At that time too the Tower’s reputation had hit rock bottom.

It might not have been the best of times to try to rebuild a failed hotel’s reputation. 2007 had seen the advent of several smaller, but better-appointed hotels for Cricket World Cup and then of course there was the Princess Hotel.

But the Tower, apart from having been branded over more than six decades, ago, sits on one of the most ideal pieces of commercial real estate in the capital. So the new investors saw past the downside. They chose to respond to the night life market first, remodeling the old Rumours Bar. Part of it became the now popular Edge Lounge and the rest of it was called the Terrace Bar. The popularization of the Edge wasn’t easy. It took a year of costly promotion and ‘concept’ parties to get it to where it is today; among the leading night life haunts in the city. That apart, it became the new investors’ first real revenue earner.

The now newly outfitted Hotel Tower Gym and Spa followed. With its modern facilities for aerobics, strength training and muscle building and attended by a retinue of personal trainers and beauticians it caters to the ‘looking good’ market.

Night clubbing at the Tower

The Tower’s transformation is most evident at its poolside. The former Spectrum Bar has been completely redesigned and has come to resemble a sort of shrine to the country’s indigenous cultures. The older furnishing is gone, replaced by off-white lounge furnishing.

Even as the pool itself is being renovated the area remains a hive of activity, ‘coming alive’ on Tuesday evenings for Free Movie Night and on Thursday evenings for Karaoke. The complete re-tiling of the pool is expected to be completed before Christmas.

The remodeling of the hotel itself – the rooms, patios, hallways and ceilings – began in 2009. All of the standard rooms and half of the luxury suites in the main building have been completed. The transformation is evident. There is new, modern furnishing, iPod docks, and flat screen televisions in evidence.

The southern block of the complex is getting the same treatment. The new owners say they want to retain some of the traditional design including the marble flooring. The rest is being replaced. The signs of renovation are everywhere as the hotel remains open for business.

Hotel Tower first opened its doors in 1866. In 1910 it was re-sited to its present location under expatriate ownership. In 1946 the property was acquired by a Guyanese family, the Humphreys, along with 50 other shareholders and re-named Hotel Tower Ltd. Though the next 50 years comprised troughs and peaks the Tower’s ideal downtown location made it attractive to its guests.

In 1966, on the occasion of the Hotel’s Golden Anniversary a commemorative stamp was struck in the hotel’s honour. The hotel’s then executive chairman, Richard Humphrey, declared that the establishment was proud to wear the title of “leading businessman’s hotel in Georgetown”. After that the Tower’s fortunes began to decline. Less than two years later it had drifted into financial difficulties.

The owners persevered, however, and in 1988 it immersed itself in further debt to finance the upgrading of the facility to a five-star hotel. The upgrading plans included the establishment of the Emerald Tower Rainforest Lodge at Madewini and a tour operations facility at the hotel. That initiative failed to bail out the Tower and in 1999 it went into receivership. Even as efforts were made to turn the fortunes of the hotel around and to find a buyer, business continued to decline with the average monthly room occupancy dipping to approximately 25 per cent of total market share.

In mid 2003, the Bank of Nova Scotia ceased its receivership hold on Hotel Tower Ltd in an equity transaction which saw a local investor group emerge as the new majority shareholders. Some of the small shareholders who were originally with the hotel had retained their business interest while Humphrey opted to sell his 60 per cent stake in the business. In February 2009, a business partnership headed by Salim Azeez acquired the hotel.

The Tower wouldn’t say just how many millions it is taking to effect the transformation but from all appearances it is a lot.

With restoration of the facility now well underway, what the new management says it seeks to do is to restore it to the position of pride and prominence it once held in the local hotel industry.

At the same time it seeks to respond to the growing market for facilities that provide both the accoutrements of twenty-first century hotel and the facilities that respond to the entertainment requirements of both guests and visitors. They are determined that the Tower will rise again.