The proposed Georgetown Marriott Hotel, Casino and Entertainment Complex will have a significant positive impact on the socio-economic environment primarily through the creation of a significant number of job opportunities for a wide range of skilled and unskilled workers, according to its Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA).
“The economy will also benefit from increased demand for goods and services during both the construction and operational phases of the project,” the document says. The ESIA Study, done by Environmental Management Consultants (EMC), says that the implementation of the project will not produce any significant negative environmental or social impacts either in the construction or operational phases. “Potential negative impacts are all low magnitude impacts of low environmental or socio-economic significance. These negative impacts can be further minimized by applying the recommended mitigation measures where appropriate,” it says.
“The project will therefore have a net positive impact on the larger economy of Guyana by adding to the hospitality and entertainment product of Georgetown, and creating significant job and economic opportunities,” it said. “The project is therefore considered to be environmentally acceptable, provided all mitigation measures are implemented in advance of other additional project related activities”, the report added.
With no word from the government in recent times on the status of the project, the ESIA dated September 2010, says that construction is scheduled to commence in January 2011 and is expected to be complete by the fourth quarter of 2012. It noted that the Georgetown Marriott Hotel, Casino and Entertainment Complex project, with an investment of US$42M represents a flagship investment in Guyana’s travel and tourism sector and seeks to establish a state-of-the-art facility with an internationally recognised brand and with an extensive, secure, facility with a wide range of accommodation, entertainment, restaurant and concession offerings, and developed according to the highest international standards.
Atlantic Hotel Inc. (AHI) will own and operate the hotel and entertainment complex. The facility will be marketed as the Georgetown Marriott Hotel, Casino and Entertainment Complex and Adam Developers and Urbahn Associates Ltd. (ADUA), a New York based company, will prepare the designs for the facility.
The project site covers 6.27 acres of land at Kingston. The ESIA noted that the facility will consist of a world-class hotel, casino, nightclub, and restaurants; all contained in a single attractively designed building. The hotel will also feature a conference centre that can be used for medium size banquets and social functions. The total building area of the hotel, casino and entertainment complex excluding parking is approximately 185,000 square feet. The building complex would rise to 10 floors. The hotel portion of the complex would consist of 165 rooms, while the casino and entertainment sections would be located on three levels.
It says that the entire complex will be operated by Marriott International and the facility will be constructed to meet the requirements of Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED). LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system which provides a third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies intended to improve performance in metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, carbon dioxide emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.
The ESIA says that in addition to direct employment of locals during construction (125 persons) and operation (429 persons), on a wider scale, the project is expected to bring economic and social benefits to Georgetown, the immediate and surrounding coastal communities and the national economy. “It will also create downstream economic development through the goods and services it would require from local suppliers,” it says.
It said that the project is expected to attract visitors from abroad, especially the Caribbean, North America and Brazil. The project is expected to have an average annual turnover in the first 10 years of approximately US$20.5M and is envisaged to service a minimum of 3,740,000 people over the first 10 years. The projected occupancy rate of the Hotel envisions a Year One occupancy rate of 60% rising to 70% by Year Six and beyond.
The ESIA says that a number of properties were considered by the proponents as alternatives including the sites next to the Guyana International Convention Centre and Buddy’s International Hotel but none of these sites were considered as appropriate as they were deemed to be too remote from the central Georgetown business centre, lacked sufficient utilities and did not offer the panoramic view of the preferred location. At the time of conducting the ESIA study the project site had been cleared of derelict buildings and vegetation but no construction work has commenced and the developer has applied to the relevant agencies as part of the planning permitting process
The ESIA says that the proposed project will have both negative and positive direct and indirect impacts on the socio-economic environment of Kingston, Greater Georgetown and the nation as a whole.
Most of the negative impacts are essentially limited to the construction phase of the project. Direct adverse effects on the physical, biological and social environment are considered to be manageable through the implementation of mitigation measures and the majority of impacts associated with this project are of low significance.
The positive impacts centre on the ability of the project to boost Guyana’s tourism sector and the employment opportunities created during the construction and operational phases. “The benefits resulting from the project will depend to a large extent on project’s ability to integrate within the local tourism and services sectors,” the ESIA says.
On June 23rd this year, Marriott International Inc had announced that it would open its first Marriott-branded hotel in Georgetown in 2013. There has since been no further announcement of plans and no word on a financing agreement which had been the original stumbling block.
The hotel chain had said then that it would operate under a management agreement with AHI, which is currently owned by the Government of Guyana as part of a public-private partnership between the Government and private sector investors.
The administration had long wooed Marriott, with officials emphasizing the project’s importance but it had a controversial and eventually ill-fated birth with the first developer unable to move forward. Government had been seeking investors for the project after the first bid collapsed amid controversy about the developers.
The government also said that after advertising in May last year for Expressions of Interest (EOI) for a joint-venture for a hotel development project to be located at the corner of Kingston, a number of EOI’s were received. It said since that time, government has been working with a number of prospective investors to advance the project and considerable progress was made to advance the development of a Hotel Entertainment Complex that will include a casino, night-club, boardwalk and other amenities. It was stated that the project will be implemented via a Special Purpose Company (SPC) financed with debt and equity contributions following a public-private model.
The statement had said that government views the project as an attractive one for investment based on the location that allows an integrated entertainment complex overlooking the ocean and river, all fiscal incentives permitted by law, and the combination of a first class Marriott Hotel to be operated by Marriott with a separately operated casino to be run by a third party operator that has not yet been selected. The casino would operate pursuant to relevant legislation that requires the construction of a hotel containing no less than 150 rooms. The project has been on the drawing board since 2006.
