Casique Palace will be ready -- owner assures By Mark Ramotar
Guyana Chronicle
December 4, 2006
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COMMITTED efforts are under way to complete the exquisitely-designed Casique Palace hotel being constructed just behind Buddy’s International Hotel and next to the Guyana National Stadium at Providence, East Bank Demerara before the end of January 2007, according to owner Ms. Beverley Arthur. The task looks monumental and there are fears the 49-room, US$4M hotel cannot be completed in time for the major Cricket World Cup (CWC) tournament to be held in Guyana in April next year.

But Ms. Arthur, a Guyanese-born United States re-migrant, was yesterday very optimistic the hotel will be completed by the end of January and opened for Mashramani on February 23.

She gave this assurance to President Bharrat Jagdeo who visited the hotel construction site yesterday afternoon for a first hand look at the works.

The President, accompanied by Minister of Transport and Hydraulics, Mr. Robeson Benn and other officials, was given a guided tour of the hotel where a substantial amount of work has been completed so far but an equally substantial amount still remains.

“I am very impressed with what I have seen. The architecture is amazing and the quality of work exquisite and I think it is going to be something that everyone is proud of,” President Jagdeo told reporters after touring the facility.

“I am very pleased that (Ms. Arthur) said the hotel will be completed too, because there was this big fear that it would not be ready for next year’s Cricket World Cup,” the President said.

The Casique Palace and Banquet Hall is made up of a hotel block featuring 49 suites, 40 of which are apartment suites, studio suites and four smaller suites. In addition all suites will have telephone and internet ready access on a twenty-four hour basis.

The hotel block includes its own split level restaurant complete with kitchen and related facilities.

A rotunda will be linked to the hotel block by connecting bridges from the first to fourth floor. Further, the rotunda is linked to the catering and banqueting halls accessed via the main entrance with a high ceiling, the base of which is the swimming pool located on the second floor level of the rotunda.

Architect of the exquisitely designed building, Mr. Sheldon Williams, told the Guyana Chronicle that swimming pools are mostly known to be on the ground-level in Guyana and it was decided to introduce something different here by putting the swimming pool on the second floor of the hotel.

He said the Casique Palace is a state of the art building constructed under the strictest of engineering and architectural standards hence its design and layout.

The hotel will feature basement facilities for cold storage and other storage purposes. Also, the upper floors of the hotel block and rotunda will be serviced by two elevators, one in each building accordingly.

The project currently employs one hundred and fourteen persons of varying disciplines -- carpenters, masons, electricians, plumbers and labourers.

It was noted that exactly four hundred and fifty greenheart piles were driven sixty-five to seventy feet into the ground to form the base of the foundation for the entire structure.

ROOMS WILL BE BOOKED

Noting that “a lot of work has been done” on the Casique Palace hotel and with the optimism from Arthur that it would be completed and ready by February next year, President Jagdeo said “if that happens, then we would be able not just to have it for Mashramani but to host the Rio Group meeting and the World Cup cricket and on that basis we will probably move to contract the rooms like we did with the Buddy’s hotel.”

Buddy’s International hotel, scheduled to be opened by January month-end, has already been booked to accommodate teams, officials, media and sponsors for Cricket World Cup 2007.

The Local Organising Committee (LOC) of Cricket World Cup 2007 has already booked all the hotel rooms, since there is a heavy demand for accommodation and President Jagdeo said the same will be done for the rooms at Casique Palace once the facility is completed in time.

Even with Buddy’s - which will effectively be the country’s biggest hotel - offering the most diversified features in terms of conveniences and entertainment, there remains still a great need for more hotel rooms for the anticipated influx of visitors to Guyana, thus the urgent push for alternatives such as ‘Bed and Breakfast’ facilities.

President Jagdeo later toured Buddy’s International Hotel.

The President and his team were taken on a guided tour of the massive six-storey building by Mr. Buddy Shivraj, who sits at the helm of the multi-billion-dollar Shivraj Enterprises which is building the US$8-$10 million hotel.

The President said he was also very impressed with the Buddy’s hotel.

Shivraj, in an earlier interview, had told this newspaper he answered the call of the LOC and the government, when it advertised for expressions of interest in building accommodation for Cricket World Cup.

Buddy’s International Hotel is intended to be Guyana’s first and only four-star-rated international facility.

Located immediately south of the cricket stadium in Providence, the hotel will be six storeys high and the rooms will feature two queen-size beds, chairs, tables, desks, hot and cold baths, television, radio, and other facilities.

One significant feature will be the guests’ option of requesting any room to be customised with electronic/communication facilities.

As regards security, each room will be accessed by both keys and electronic cards, issued to bona fide guests of the hotel and all rooms will be serviced by wireless fibre optic facilities, Shivraj said.

In addition, he said, there will be a perimeter fence and manned surveillance systems to monitor activities around the hotel.

Among other features, the hotel will have two restaurants, an international conference room, a modern discotheque, lawn tennis and basketball courts, a bowling alley and a state-of-the-art gymnasium with trained attendants.

The hotel is the latest diversification of business for Buddy’s (the Shivraj Group) which was first associated with the sale of automobiles, with Buddy’s Auto Sales being a household name.

But this closed in 1995 after a shift in the company’s investment strategy, influenced by a lessened demand for its business.

Under construction now is Buddy’s Housing Estate on the East Bank Demerara. It is poised to provide from two-bedroom to four-bedroom self-contained houses.

Shivraj said the state-of-the-art four-star hotel being constructed would represent the company’s largest investment to date and cement the company’s place high among the leading Guyanese firms.