Plans are afoot by the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) to reclaim the historical Chaguaramas Hotel and Convention Centre, which was leased to an investor by the former People’s Partnership government.
The move is being initiated by CDA’s chairman Anthony Pierre, who admitted that the authority has been negotiating with the local investor to get back the property under the State’s control at no cost to the Government.
The property was leased in 2014 for 30 years.
“I can’t say why the centre was put into the hands of an investor. What I can tell you is that we have been negotiating with the investor. So far, it seems positive. It seems CDA will be able to get back the centre. In a month or two we should be able to negotiate something. We are trying to broker a deal.”
Pierre refused to identify the investor who paid $30 million which was the value of the centre.
Once the CDA and the investor come to an agreement, Pierre said, the authority would take it to Cabinet for approval.
“That was the premium they were supposed to pay for the property, but in fact, they did not pay all of it. I think they paid one-third of that figure,” Pierre said.
Pierre said CDA was trying to hammer out an arrangement with the investor, who was being offered another property in exchange for the centre.
In 2012, the People’s National Movement which traditionally used the centre to host its annual political party convention had to shift its venue to the Queen’s Park Savannah after they were informed that the building was under repair.
Initially, Pierre said the PP government wanted to demolish the centre.
Why is the CDA looking to recapture the property which was in a deplorable state and not generating money?
Pierre said the property, which belongs to the CDA, should remain a historical site.
He said the centre was where the Chaguaramas Treaty was signed establishing Caricom, while it was also considered the capital of the West Indies federation.
“We are saying that a building of such significance and heritage should not be dealt with like an ordinary building. We would like to see it restored. While the government may not have the money to preserve the building right now, the CDA can enter into a private/public sector arrangement to have it refurbished and operate it as a hotel. But we will not destroy it.”
Pierre was unable to say how much it would cost to have the building restored.
“Once we have completed negotiations to get it back into our hands we will put out an expression of interest.”
Whoever expresses an interest in the property, Pierre said an arrangement would then be worked out, in that, the CDA would not put any money towards the centre’s refurbishment.
“We would just remain the landlord. That would be the investor’s responsibility to finance, refurbish and operate it. We have to make it economically viable for whoever the private sector will be.”
Tewarie: Hotel never made money
Former minister of planning and sustainable development Dr Bhoe Tewarie, under whose purview the CDA fell, said if the board was renegotiating with the investor they were within their ambit, but stated that this had implications for other things, which he refused to elaborate. He said the idea of putting the property in the hands of an investor was due to the fact it never made money.
“It has never been economically viable. It has gone through periods of renovation, upgrading and perpetual deterioration over the course of time.”
Tewarie said the investor, whom he too refused to identify, would have commercialised the hotel and be driven by profits.
“They would have had most likely to bring in an international operator to do that. The idea was to link the new convention centre facility which would have been a hotel facility with the hotel school. So there would have been some synergy between our education strategy into tourism and our divestment of the burden of subsidies from the convention centre.”
He said this was part of the PP’s government tourism thrust for the northwestern peninsula.