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Government yesterday took another step in its plans to erect a luxury hotel in Kingston with advertisements in the newspapers asking for interested contractors to make pre-qualification applications.According to the ads, contractors must possess the experience and capability to undertake the construction of a hotel and entertainment complex in Georgetown.It was noted that the hotel will be operated by Marriott International and be built according to Marriott standards.The works include the construction and erection of a 200,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys,000 square feet,China Jerseys Cheap, 160-rooms hotel facility along with a 75,000 square feet “entertainment complex” outfitted with common services areas/amenities that will house a casino,Cheap Jerseys From China, restaurant, nightclub, and others spaces that will be rented.In addition to interested contractors registering with Atlantic Hotel Inc. (AHI) which address was given as 126 Barrack Street, Kingston, and which houses the offices of the National Industrial & Commercial Investments Ltd. (N.I.C.I.L), a prequalification statement must be submitted within a deadline period.Potential contractors of the project will be provided, upon application, with a site plan also.Contractors have until August 20 to make an application to be pre-qualified.The construction of the hotel has come under fire from several quarters, with Chairman of Pegasus Hotel,Deion Jones Falcons Jersey, Robert Badal, on Thursday last blasting the decision to go ahead with the construction and describing the venture as an indecent assault on the local private sector. He questioned President Bharrat Jagdeo’s judgment with respect to the agreement.Badal had questioned why “Mr. Jagdeo has committed US$20M of poor taxpayers’ money to a hotel for the benefit of Marriott International, a wealthy American hotel group. So far no rational explanation has been forthcoming despite widespread criticisms.”Badal explained that Marriott Hotels would usually, under normal commercial management contracts, have to pay a management fee to compensate a developer and owner of a hotel a minimum of 10% of the project cost. In this case a minimum of US$2M per year. According to Badal, no hotel in Guyana earns a profit of US$2M ($400M) per year, “so it is easy to deduce that if Marriott has agreed to manage the hotel, then the usual rules must have been relaxed by the Government of Guyana. Nor is it unlikely that the hotel would receive no less favourable tax concessions than Buddy’s Hotel at Providence,NFL Jerseys From China, which received a 10 year tax holiday.”In late June, Marriott International announced that it will open its first Marriott-branded hotel in Guyana in 2013.In a statement released by the government,NFL Jerseys Cheap, President Jagdeo is quoted as saying: “Guyana looks forward to a first class branded quality hotel operated by Marriott International.”He said “this public-private partnership project will transform the hospitality landscape and can be expected to encourage more travel and tourism development for our nation.”According to Jagdeo, the project will be more an integrated entertainment complex ideally located at the corner of the Atlantic Ocean and Demerara River with a casino, nightclub, restaurant, and boardwalk.Marriott International said the 160-room Georgetown Marriott Hotel is on track to receive LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and is on track to be Marriott’s first LEED hotel in the Caribbean & Latin America. |
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