The Qatari investor who plans to build a hotel on Carifesta Avenue which will have access to a boardwalk along the seawall from Camp Road to the Kitty roundabout and will do so on the Guyana National Service (GNS) and National Insurance Scheme (NIS) grounds.
“The President dealt with this. This is some of the lands there along Carifesta Avenue; the GNS Complex [Ground] and stuff. The President dealt with this in great detail. He dealt with it in one of the speeches he made,” Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo said when asked by the Sunday Stabroek for an update on the hotel project and which lands would be used.
Asked if the St Stanislaus Ground was also included, he said that he did not believe so but knows it is the GNS and another ground. “I don’t know the exact two grounds but there are two grounds there.” Sources have since told the Sunday Stabroek that the other ground to be utilized is the NIS ground.
When President Irfaan Ali had made the announcement of the Qatari hotel there had been puzzlement about where exactly it would be located as there is little additional space in the area. The assigning of these two grounds to the hotel project will raise eyebrows about the diminishing of recreational space in the area.
Questioned on if the lands are in trusts, Jagdeo said that based on the documents the government has, the lands are state lands. “No, no, no, they are not in trust; none of them. The lands were checked and they are public lands. As far as I am [aware], as far as the records that were sent to the government by Lands and Survey [Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission] the lands belong to the state,” he expressed.
At the Private Sector Commission’s 31st anniversary dinner, held at the Marriott Hotel last December, President Ali announced that a Qatari company was interested in building a hotel and boardwalk, north of Carifesta Avenue.
Ali did not name the investor or company but said that the project would begin sometime this year and that it ties in with his government’s Urban Renewal Plan for the country.
“We’ll see the Urban Renewal Plan which involves the building of the massive hotel, conference and entertainment facility along Carifesta, commencing next year. These are investments from a Qatari group. A massive facility that will commence next year,” the President said.
This newspaper reached out to head of the Guyana Office for Investment (G-Invest), Dr Peter Ramsaroop on the project and he referred all questions to Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Walrond.
On Friday afternoon the Minister’s Office was contacted and questions sent but up to press time there had not been any response.
President Ali has said that the project, “will open up opportunity along the Carifesta Highway and bring into realisation, the plan of a modern boardwalk along the seawall, outside of Carifesta.”
Entertainment capital
He had also noted that Guyana aspires to be the “entertainment capital of the region” and is forging ahead with development plans not only to build local infrastructure, but to ensure that it is the destination many seek.
“This is the year that we will be moving forward on the building of three new stadiums and the completion of the stadium in Anna Regina.”
Ali also announced that Guyana was in “the final stages of negotiating the hosting of the women’s CPL in Essequibo,” this year.
He said that no region here should feel left out and assured that there is a plan for each to maximise their uniqueness and that government will provide the infrastructure to complement investment initiatives.
“We are already acutely aware with the fact that once we develop this capacity with all these new roads and new hotels and new restaurants, we have to be able to bring people in, bring consumers in to take care of the demand.”
The Head of State expressed optimism that once built, people will come.
For Jagdeo, the change to the Georgetown landscape with a boardwalk on the seawall will be a great recreation area and that locals would not be barred from using it.
In some countries, public beach areas are blocked off from locals. At one time here, steel bars were placed around the Marriott Hotel. But after the objections and ire of the public these were removed and persons now use the area freely, some even hold loud public parties.
“These [the hotel] will change the whole area and will flow onto a boardwalk for the country, hopefully from Camp Street all the way to the roundabout. People will have access to [it]; Guyanese. So the public infrastructure changes probably along the park, [there will be] a lot of investment in the park itself,” Jagdeo said.
When the PPP/C administration took office in 2020 there were reports that a hotelier had been interested in siting a hotel on the current Everest Cricket Ground. These reports were later denied.
