Hyatt project set for January start

The Hyatt Hotel is finally about to get off the ground.

That’s according to developer Mark Maloney, who estimated the preliminary work could begin next month noting the project would be moving full steam ahead by January.

“We’ve been working assiduously with the Hyatt over the last year. We signed a US$90 million loan with the Afreximbank and we’ve finalised arrangements with the other financiers.

“We have equipment on the way to Barbados now for the soil improvement since we’re not driving piles. We’re doing a technology to improve the soil on the site, digging it out and creating rock piers with special rocks made in Barbados of a combination of cement and various other things. We’ve commissioned a company, Minard, out of France who is basically getting ready to mobilise and hopefully, within the next month, we’ll start that work and everything else is going ahead full steam. So, by January, you will see major works going on,” Maloney said.

He made those comments to reporters yesterday following the ground-breaking ceremony of West Beach Barbados at Road View, St Peter.

Maloney provided the update after Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley listed Hyatt as a major project scheduled to begin later this year.

The entire project is projected to cost about US$190 million, comprising 367 keys, 28 condominiums and impact about 1 500 people.

Although many Barbadians are set to benefit from the work, Maloney said overseas expertise would also be utilised because of the worker shortage.

“We don’t have enough resources in Barbados to build out all these projects. As the Prime Minister alluded to, we have Pendry that started at Port Ferdinand. We have Royalton that started. We have Pierhead that

started and Hyatt, just to name a few. There are a lot of other residential projects. With all of these projects going on, we have to give all of the local artisans and subcontractors the opportunity to work but we have to resource from outside and also because we can’t do it with just what we have in Barbados,” he added.

He said they were also working with beach resort development firm TLDI, which constructed Hyatt Ziva and Zilara in Mexico as well as in the Dominican Republic and other hotels around the world.

While congratulating Government for contributing to increased investor confidence, Maloney said the projects could lead to economic growth.

“We’ve got to be extremely proud of the work by the Government led by the Prime Minister and all the technocrats in the civil service. We’re seeing a major push to get things done now. Processes now with Town Planning have improved; you get your Town Planning permissions more efficiently now. We’re following the same processes, but it’s expedited more efficiently.

“It’s heartening to know that because we now have certainty and investors want certainty because it takes a long time to plan and put financing in place to start the smallest of projects.

“The Prime Minister said the economy grew four per cent last year . . . She’s projecting 3.75 per cent but if these projects get going, we could be at six per cent growth,” Maloney added. (TG)

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