Arrangements for the construction of a five-star hotel under the Marriott brand are expected to be concluded by yearend when details of the investors and other arrangements would be revealed, President Bharrat Jagdeo said.
Asked who the investors were for the construction of the Marriott-managed hotel at a press conference he held at the Office of the President on Monday, Jagdeo said that he wanted to be cautious about disclosing details at this time.
He prefers any disclosure on the project to be made when the agreement is signed and the arrangements concluded at which time the country would know about it.
The project, this newspaper understands, has been in the making over the past two years.
Jagdeo said there is a memorandum of understanding paving the way for preliminary arrangements under confidentiality provisions. Confidentiality, he said, was normal in any business environment until the day they sign onto the actual commitment to commence the project.
The President said that he would not speak on the matter until there was financial closure because experience has shown that “companies could make a big hullabaloo” without financial closure and then they fall through with the arrangements because they did not get the required funding.
He recalled as an example the proposed hotel project at Liliendaal in Greater George-town, about which there was much talk and the investors could not close the financial aspects for its funding.
Asked who the investors were and whether they were from the Caribbean, Jagdeo said, “There is a range of investors, a consortium of different groups.”
“At an appropriate time when the project is launched you would find out all the details about the people who were given the franchise to build the Marriott and everything else.”
He noted that works were halted on relocating the sewage pipes which served as an outlet to the city’s sewerage system in the Kingston area earmarked for the project. Referring to the contractor who was initially given the work, Jagdeo said that the government “did not terminate the contract for bad work
