The sod was turned yesterday for the construction of a US$15 million Aiden Hotel, the country’s first franchise “boutique” hotel, which is expected to provide jobs for 150 local workers during the construction phase and no less than 50 others once operations begin.
The 74,000 sq. ft. facility, which is being erected at Lots 88/89 Robb and Oronoque streets, Georgetown, will be the first Aiden hotel to be completed in South America and the Caribbean. There are already 12 others across the world.
Construction begins today, with the first phase of pile driving. The project is expected to be completed within 18 months.
The multi-million dollar facility is being developed through Arimu Investments Inc., a local company that has acquired two hotel franchises — Aiden Hotel and SureStay Plus – under the Best Western Hotel & Resorts network.
In providing a description of the project, Co-Director of the hotel Lorenzo Alphonso said that the hotel will be a nine-storey modern building that will house 101 executive ‘smart’ rooms.
He said the ground floor will consist of a conference room, which will cater for up to 120 persons, a restaurant and bar that can accommodate approximately 170 persons, and a coffee shop.
The second to seventh floors, he added, will consist of 97 rooms while the eighth floor will house a gym and sauna area, four executive suites all equipped with open terraces, an executive board room equipped with a bar, modern technology services and a terrace with privacy screens.
The ninth floor will have a roof top bar and lounge.
Director of the hotel Geraldo Alphonso during his remarks at the ceremony noted that with the “lucrative” oil discoveries offshore Guyana, the country is destined to “take off” to great heights and it is for this reason the company is supporting the government’s transformative, infrastructural and economic agenda with the construction of the first franchise boutique hotel here.
According to Geraldo, it was “very high” on the company’s agenda to ensure that “every inch” of the Guyanese workforce is utilized, whether skilled or unskilled, before outside help is sought.
Thus far, he said, the company has already contracted several Guyanese engineers, pile drivers, steel fabricators, quality control officers, among other servicemen. He encouraged other investors to do the same and “think Guyana first.”
Geraldo said that the long-term vision and expectation of the company is to further invest in the “ever growing” tourism and hospitality sector in Guyana.
As a result, he said once the Arima hotel is completed, a 200-room SureStay Plus hotel will be constructed. A location has not yet been identified.
Delivering remarks at the sod turning yesterday morning, President Irfaan Ali reiterated the need for transition so that the country can prepare for the transformation that is expected.
“We have to transition to create the transformation that we want. The transformation is not only the physical transformation. It’s the human transformation. How do we transform our way of thinking? How do we transform our way of acting? How do we transform the way in which we celebrate our country? How do we transform the way we do business? How do we transform our organisation culture to become more service oriented?” Ali stated.
According to Ali, one of the things the government is presently working on is to bring together various consortiums to ensure 100% of the “forward and backward” linkage of the oil and gas sector comes to Guyana. “We have to build the capacity and we have to start now,” he noted.
Ali further reaffirmed government commitment towards creating an environment that will attract investment. “We have a responsibility to ensure the investment climate is secure, [and] investors are protected. We have an obligation to the investors to ensure that our policies and incentives regime give them a good opportunity to have a fair return on their investment and we must have no apologies for these enabling factors,” Ali noted.
Approval system
Ali further stated that no modern society can operate with an approval system of one year to three years. He said this has to change so as to respond to the development agenda of the country. “…We have to break down little walls of gods what believe they have a god-given right to hold approval on their desk and you have to prostrate before them to get your approval,” Ali said.
“Those days are old and gone days. We have to transition to professional approach. A business-oriented approach,” he added.
According to Ali, it is for this reason that the government is moving “aggressively” on the single-window approval system. For this to happen, he said, there will have to be amendments to the laws and the political will is there to provide for this.
“The new generation of investors must learn to operate in a new environment for investment. So we have to create that conducive environment,” Ali said.
With that, he said there is also a need for practical policy making. “…We can’t speak about local content and promote local content when our policy making is not screwed positively to local content,” Ali said.
“Not textbook policy making but policy making that in practice, that is adaptable, that is flexible, that responds to the local environment. Very critical,” he stated.
He said policy making must be surrounded by government support, must be people-centered, private sector-driven and results-oriented.
Meanwhile, Minister of Tourism Oneidge Walrond noted the rapid expansion in the hotel industry. “There is increased demand for higher quality rooms, such as those to be offered by the Aiden Hotel,” she said.
This and other similar ventures, according to Walrond, will allow the country to “aggressively” market Destination Guyana. “I am confident that we will soon have the capacity to accommodate this influx of tourists,” she noted.
The construction of the Aiden Hotel, according to Walrond, signifies the confidence of the business community in the country’s investment climate and the economic potential of Guyana.
“Events such as this one send a clear signal that the concept of expanding and developing our tourism sector is not an idle dream of our government. They demonstrate that the robust tourism product we envision can become a reality,” she stated.
The sod turning, she added, also proves that the vision and plans that the government has for tourism are shared by the private sector. “The evidence is clear that Guyana has become a preferred destination for business travelers,” Walrond said.
