The government of St Vincent and the Grenadines is moving ahead with
\nplans to construct a 250 room hotel at Mt Wynne.
\nMinister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves told parliament last Thursday
\nthat as stated in his 2018 budget address in February, the intention
\nis to add quality accommodation to the current stock and that they
\nhave had very fruitful conversations with allies in Taiwan for the
\nconstruction of a US$50 million facility.
\nMinister Gonsalves was responding to questions posed by the opposition
\nNew Democratic Party (NDP).
\n“The government intends to borrow 50 million US dollars, or 135
\nmillion Eastern Caribbean dollars for the Mt Wynne hotel project. To
\nthis end, the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines recently
\nexecuted a letter of intent with the Export\/Import Bank of the
\nThe Republic of China on Taiwan to secure the required financing. He said
\nthat earlier this year the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines
\nheld conversation with the management of a hotel brand to guage the
\nfeasibility and desirability of partnering in the operation of a large
\nhotel on mainland St Vincent. He said that whereas these major brands
\nwere in the business of owning and operating hotels worldwide, there
\ncurrent preferred model is to manage, market and brand facilities that
\nare owned by others, or built by others to their own specifications.
\n“Those discussions led to visits by two of these major brands to St
\nVincent and the Grenadines. The delegations, which were led by very
\nsenior officials of these chains visited the Mt Wynne site, examined
\nour tourism data and held meetings with various state officials and
\nagencies which both expressed strong interest in operating a hotel at
\nthe Mt Wynne site. Further discussions with those brands led to the
\nproduction of a shortlist of architects with whom they have worked in
\nthe past and who have a record of designing iconic hotels in the
\nThe Caribbean and Latin America. The government short-listed two of those
\narchitects and commissioned them to develop concept designs for a
\nThe 250-room hotel at the Mt Wynne site in accordance with the brand
\nspecifications of our potential partners,” Gonsalves stated.
\nMinister Gonsalves said the architects came to St Vincent and the
\nGrenadines explored the site extensively and toured the country. They
\nheld discussions with tourism investment and state officials about the
\ntype of hotel the government is seeking to build.
\n“Based on an analysis of per room cost for hotel construction, our
\nconversations with our potential operators and our own analysis of
\nwhat is prudent and responsible in our current economic circumstances,
\nwe instructed the architects to produce designs that would lead to a
\nhotel in the $50 million range – that’s US 50 million dollars. The
\narchitects produced two striking but very distinct conceptual
\nmanifestations of the visions we discussed. As one would expect, each
\nthe design had its own set of pros and cons and implications. Those
\ndesigns have been shared with the relevant entities for their
\nfeedback and both architects have refined their vision in accordance
\nwith that feedback,” Gonsalves said.
\nThe Minister of Finances said the selection of the architect who will
\ncomplete the final designs and drawings is imminent, pending final
\ndiscussions with potential operating partners and that the final cost
\nof the project cannot be determined with complete certainty at this
\npoint in the process. He noted that some design elements are still
\nbeing refined and will have cost implications but it is anticipated
\nthat the loan will be enough to complete the hotel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"\n