State-owned hotel at Mt Wynne to commence mid-2019 – Camillo Gonsalves

The government of St Vincent and the Grenadines is moving ahead with
plans to construct a 250 room hotel at Mt Wynne.
Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves told parliament last Thursday
that as stated in his 2018 budget address in February, the intention
is to add quality accommodation to the current stock and that they
have had very fruitful conversations with allies in Taiwan for the
construction of a US$50 million facility.
Minister Gonsalves was responding to questions posed by the opposition
New Democratic Party (NDP).
“The government intends to borrow 50 million US dollars, or 135
million Eastern Caribbean dollars for the Mt Wynne hotel project. To
this end, the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines recently
executed a letter of intent with the Export/Import Bank of the
The Republic of China on Taiwan to secure the required financing. He said
that earlier this year the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines
held conversation with the management of a hotel brand to guage the
feasibility and desirability of partnering in the operation of a large
hotel on mainland St Vincent. He said that whereas these major brands
were in the business of owning and operating hotels worldwide, there
current preferred model is to manage, market and brand facilities that
are owned by others, or built by others to their own specifications.
“Those discussions led to visits by two of these major brands to St
Vincent and the Grenadines. The delegations, which were led by very
senior officials of these chains visited the Mt Wynne site, examined
our tourism data and held meetings with various state officials and
agencies which both expressed strong interest in operating a hotel at
the Mt Wynne site. Further discussions with those brands led to the
production of a shortlist of architects with whom they have worked in
the past and who have a record of designing iconic hotels in the
The Caribbean and Latin America. The government short-listed two of those
architects and commissioned them to develop concept designs for a
The 250-room hotel at the Mt Wynne site in accordance with the brand
specifications of our potential partners,” Gonsalves stated.
Minister Gonsalves said the architects came to St Vincent and the
Grenadines explored the site extensively and toured the country. They
held discussions with tourism investment and state officials about the
type of hotel the government is seeking to build.
“Based on an analysis of per room cost for hotel construction, our
conversations with our potential operators and our own analysis of
what is prudent and responsible in our current economic circumstances,
we instructed the architects to produce designs that would lead to a
hotel in the $50 million range – that’s US 50 million dollars. The
architects produced two striking but very distinct conceptual
manifestations of the visions we discussed. As one would expect, each
the design had its own set of pros and cons and implications. Those
designs have been shared with the relevant entities for their
feedback and both architects have refined their vision in accordance
with that feedback,” Gonsalves said.
The Minister of Finances said the selection of the architect who will
complete the final designs and drawings is imminent, pending final
discussions with potential operating partners and that the final cost
of the project cannot be determined with complete certainty at this
point in the process. He noted that some design elements are still
being refined and will have cost implications but it is anticipated
that the loan will be enough to complete the hotel.