Land clearing is expected to commence soon, paving the way for the construction of the Ocean View Best Western Hotel along the Rupert Craig Highway, Liliendaal, the investor, Chief Samsair told the Sunday Stabroek in a telephone interview.
“Soil testing is done. They are about to clear the land to start the foundation. The project is on,” Samsair said from the US.
The site, formerly the famous Carib Hotel, gives the impression that the project is stalled. However, Samsair, who recently launched the ‘Caribe Snackz’ plantain chip factory in Parika explained that the architectural design had been completed and that they are working on the construction of the test piles while preparing for the mobilization of machinery and equipment for the construction of the foundation. “Within next two to three months you should see full activity…,” he disclosed.
The construction of this international hotel falls in line with the government call for 2000 rooms by 2025. This newspaper understands that the Best Western will be outfitted with 120 rooms and is one of several companies that responded to the government’s call in 2020 to construct hotels. They had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Guyana Office for Investment. Construction was originally expected to start last year. Approximately seven hotels, five of which are internationally branded, are being constructed across the city and on the East Bank Demerara. These will put the accommodation industry on stream to meet an expected room demand by 2025.
Along with the Ocean View Best Western, the others are Four Points under Marriott (New Access Road, Houston) with 150 rooms; Hyatt Place (Providence), 125 rooms; AC Marriott (Ogle), 150 rooms; Pasha Global (Liliendaal), 200 rooms; Aiden by Best Western (Robb Street), 150 rooms and Marriott Courtyard (Timehri), East Bank Demerara, 140 rooms, and King’s Hotel and Residence, 60 rooms (Georgetown).
In February 2020, under the APNU+AFC government, the sod was turned to kick-start the construction of the Ministry of Public Health’s laboratory and the Guyana Gold Board’s Head Office at the site. The building was designed to contain offices as well as laboratory facilities. The Ministry of Health’s Guyana Agency for Health Sciences Education, Environment and Food Policy (GAHEF) office was once situated at this site but was destroyed in an early morning fire on March 2014.
Thereafter, a decision appeared to have been made for the Best Western hotel to be built there.
