Substantial work still to be completed on Casique
By Miranda La Rose
Stabroek News
February 18, 2007
The exquisitely-designed Casique Palace, Suites and Banqueting Halls is still under construction at Providence, East Bank Demerara with the warm-up matches for the Cricket World Cup scheduled to start in just two weeks and the official matches in three we
With substantial work still to be completed on the multi-million dollar Casique hotel, it looks unlikely that it would be ready to accommodate the teams, officials, media and sponsors (TOMS) for the upcoming Cricket World Cup matches to be played in Guyana.
The proprietors had anticipated that the hotel would have been completed by December 31 last year with a grand opening in late January or early February 2007 but those dates have passed and construction is still underway.
Stabroek News, which had first reported on the hotel when construction begun during the third week in February last year, made several attempts to contact one of the three partners in the project but to no avail. Messages left with persons answering the telephone and on an answering machine were unanswered.
The facility, registered as The Casique Palace, Suites and Banqueting Halls Inc, has also received the sum of $33 million as bridge financing for the project from the Guyana government. The money was an advance for the purchase of rooms for the TOMS for the six CWC 2007 Super Eight matches slated to be held in Guyana from March 28 to April 9.
The government had also advanced the sum of $168 million to the hotel next door, Buddy's International Hotel and Resort to secure the rooms for the TOMS and as explained by President Bharrat Jagdeo to aid in bridge financing issues the hotels under construction were experiencing.
Asked whether the hotel would be completed in time to accommodate guests, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr Frank Anthony, who is also the Chairman of the ICC CWC Local Organising Committee, told the Stabroek News on Friday evening that so far the proprietors have indicated that the hotel would be ready for the world's third largest cricketing event. He said that to date they have not indicated otherwise.
Asked what would happen if it was not completed on time, given the advance for rooms, Anthony said if that were the case the government would have to take some kind of action to recover the money advanced, but he added that it was not so much an issue at present.
In December, when questioned by Stabroek News about government's financing for the privately-owned facilities, Jagdeo had said whether Stabroek News rages or whoever else "we will complete this because this country's image is at stake… our image. We will complete it and secure the financing. We would recover our money. We are hosting world cup cricket. You better believe that."
The advances were in the form of mortgages the developers have had from the government and Jagdeo said the government would be reimbursed when it sells the rooms to the ICC CWC.
Jagdeo had said that the government had secured the suites and rooms for the sum of US$225 each. "We intend to meet our obligation. I think 150 rooms would be sold to ICC CWC and the rest could be sold on the market for a decent profit. We will do it. It is not just that. The money is secured and even if we need to go further we will go further," he said.
He advised the media to talk with the proprietors of Casique to see how much assistance they have had from the government.
A December 3, 2006 GINA news bulletin had reported the President as lambasting critics whom he said had been "sniping and saying that government has been financially assisting specific projects such as Buddy's International Hotel." Jagdeo had said that the government had "just contracted the rooms to meet the obligations of the ICC. We've done nothing else. We've not given any loan, any grant to anyone."
In seeking an audience with the proprietors (that is, apart from telephone calls that were unanswered), Stabroek News went to the Providence location but was turned away at the gate on two occasions. Even though a name and telephone numbers to return a call was left with the security, no calls were received.
Co-owner Beverley Arthur, in the first interview had told the Stabroek News that plans for the initially estimated US$3.5 million all-inclusive tourism and hospitality facility had been in the making long before the Caribbean and Guyana were awarded the rights to host the CWC 2007. The figure now being touted for the project is in the vicinity of US$4 million.
The other partners are US-based pharmacists and businessmen George Smith and Charles Cush.
The exquisitely-designed facility under construction, include 45 suites and two banqueting halls, which would accommodate some 1,200 persons at any one time, a swimming pool and a business centre.
According to Arthur, the five-storey facility, which is being built on 5.1 acres of land, would have 32 suites catering for double occupancy and 13 for single occupancy. They would be all-inclusive, which would also make it exclusive and new to what Guyana offers at present. There would also be recreational facilities, shops, a gym, massage parlour and spa and business centre.
In December during a tour of the construction works, Arthur had told Jagdeo that she was very optimistic the hotel will be completed by the end of January and opened for Mashramani on February 23. At that time it was reported that just half of the work, which was nevertheless substantial, was completed.