Five-star ‘Guyana Marriott’ set to open shortly – Stabroek News apologises for saying otherwise
January 11, 2015, Source - Guyana Chronicle
ANOTHER misguided attempt at derailing the construction of the Marriott Hotel has this time forced the privately-owned daily, Stabroek News, to apologise to Atlantic Hotels Inc. (AHI) Chairman Winston Brassington over an article it published, misrepresenting several aspects of the US$58M project.
“Stabroek News regrets any error as it relates to the presentation of Mr Brassington’s information on the financing framework for the project, and the date of the commencement of the lease arrangement for the land on which the hotel and entertainment complex are to be constructed,” an extract of the editor’s note in response to Brassington’s reproach of the article reads.
Work moving apace yesterday at the Guyana Marriott Hotel
Brassington has accused Stabroek News of soliciting information from him by way of an interview and five weeks later producing an article on the very issue, riddled with inaccuracies, misrepresentations and devoid of any of the information provided by him.
In fact, the construction of the US$58M hotel is continuing apace, and will be opened shortly, Brassington assured.
“The construction of the Guyana Marriott is near completion. Marriott’s management is in place. Staff is currently being engaged and trained,” he said.
SOUND INVESTMENT
Responding to the Stabroek News article published on January 6, 2015, and headlined ‘Questions continue over Marriott deal opening date’, Brassington said it indulges in mischievous reporting and speculation.
The reality, according to the AHI Chairman, is that “Every dollar invested in the hotel is well invested.”
Speaking to the level of accountability with regard to the monies being expended, Brassington reminded that NICIL’s and, by extension, AHI’s financial transactions are made with the full authority of the Cabinet; are subject to full public disclosure; are audited by the Audit Office of Guyana; and subject to final Parliamentary oversight.
In seeking to clear the air on some of the misconceptions being spread in sections of the media, Brassington assured that Marriott, Republic Bank and the private investors are all fully on board with the project, which will be opened shortly.
Landscaping in preparation for the imminent opening of the Marriott Hotel
“Guyana will have, for the first time, a five-star internationally branded hotel of which we can all be proud,” he said.
In taking the Stabroek News to task over the misleading article, Brassington disclosed that on December 1 last, a journalist from that newspaper interviewed him by phone on the subject of the progress of the Guyana Marriott Hotel, and subsequently submitted, in writing, a number of questions, to which he responded in writing.
“I was surprised, therefore, that nothing was published at the time of the interview, and find it disappointing that now, some five weeks later, you publish an article, which is a significant departure from the written questions of your reporter and the responses I had provided.
“The article is factually inaccurate, misleading and misrepresents the responses I gave your reporter,” Brassington said.
Brassington, offering further clarifications, recalled that the Stabroek News reporter enquired whether the private investors are entering into a venture with significant risk.
“My response which you have not published is that from the inception of this project the opposition has launched an orchestrated campaign calculated to discourage and obstruct private investment in the development of the hotel,” he said.
OPPOSITION THREATS
Brassington maintains that the opposition have used the media as a convenient platform to denigrate the viability of the project and to undermine, if not, subvert, both foreign and local private investor interests.
“Opposition leaders, for instance, have gone to the length of threatening to dishonour internationally binding investor agreements entered into with regard to the ownership, financing and management of the hotel.”
On the matter of the private investors currently engaged by AHI on the hotel project, Brassington reported that despite what has been reported, all partners are on board.
The Stabroek News had inaccurately reported that since the syndicated loan solicited from Republic Bank, ranks as the number one secured creditor, this somehow represented a deviation from the original financial structure of the project.
Working on completing the Marriott Hotel Swimming Pool (Photos by Adrian Narine)
Brassington said that he informed the Stabroek News journalist that this is a condition agreed to by all the investors from the inception.
The article, he said, having benefited from the interview with him five weeks earlier, indulges in further mischievous reporting, by speculating that “observers say that this arrangement may be unpalatable to the Hong Kong Investors.”
In reference to the land mortgaged against the Republic Bank loan, Brassington observed that the Stabroek News article reported that “Brassington stated that the option has always been in place for the land to be leased or purchased and that RBL as the number one secure creditor to the project was invoking that option.”
According to Brassington “This is not what I said.”
He reported too that the Stabroek News journalist had asked the question: “What is the amount of the mortgage and when was the decision taken to change the framework from the leasing to mortgaging?”
“In my response I asked: Please clarify what is meant from leasing to mortgaging. I then made it absolutely clear that the ‘framework’ for the financing of the hotel has never changed. The financing is as was contemplated in the feasibility studies and communicated to the public by AHI on prior occasions,” according to Brassington.
