Prime Minister Mia Mottley has disclosed that another hotel may be built in this island’s capital.
She said discussions will be held regarding the construction of a hotel “on the other side of the Pierhead, where Carlisle House is”.
“But they’re not yet ready for that. Obviously, with COVID, those plans got put on hold but they’re now beginning to talk with us about our lands next to the BTII [Barbados Tourism Investment Incorporated], to be able to have a hotel on that side, but that’s early days for that,” Mottley said following a tour of the new Sam Lord’s Castle Barbados, A Wyndham Grand Resort, on Wednesday afternoon.
“There’s also another property between Pierhead and Hyatt that only this morning we met with the potential investors for, and we would want to be able to have that also because we’d like to have all of the construction taking place more or less at the same time, so that there is no further disruption of Bridgetown. The truth is, Bridgetown is going to be a difficult place to be moving through next year,” she told the media.
The Prime Minister said that over the next six to nine months, Barbados’ infrastructural landscape will be significantly modified as several projects, including the Hyatt Hotel, are slated to get underway.
“We had meetings with all of the lenders and the investors with Hyatt yesterday (Tuesday). We expect that also to be coming close to ending with the legal closure, and therefore should start soon,” she said.
Giving an update on the various projects in the pipeline, Mottley said advancements had been made with the world-renowned all-inclusive Royalton Luxury Resort.
“We have Royalton, who we approved all of the concessions and all of the things in Holetown by the old Discovery Bay site, and we expect that they will start in a couple of months as well. They want to be able to be finished, if possible, by February 2025, because next door to them is the old lagoon in Holetown, where, of course, 400 years from February 2025 is when the British first landed there. So I think they would like to be able to have their property open for that,” she said.
Mottley said the creation of high-rise parking on the west coast of the island was a necessity.
“We’re going to have to put parking in Holetown. Part and parcel of a lot of Barbados’ difficulties is that where our spots are, there is no regular access to parking and we’ve had to make some changes and agree that some multi-storey parking would have to go into the different town sites in order to be able to get the maximum use of the land in these instances,” she argued.
Also pointing to the progress being made with the Indigo Hotel in Hastings, she said town hall meetings for the Pierhead Development Project were expected to finish soon.
“There are a number of other projects as well, but those are the ones that are immediate and that I expect to happen over the course of the next six to nine months,” the Prime Minister added.
Speaking on the future development of the island’s tourism product, she revealed that discussions are ongoing regarding the relocation of the Barbados Defence Force headquarters and the clean-up of the old Mobil site on Bay Street.
“We will keep the historic aspect of the Drill Hall and the St Ann’s Fort there, but the truth is, it’s not practical for the Barbados Defence Force to be there, and it is more amenable to tourism development. We have people looking at the old Mobil site which, as you know, was tarnished with the oil on the ground…. We now have people who are reviewing the possibility for cleanup, which will allow for the expansion of both the Hilton as well as another opportunity in there,” Mottley said.
Additionally, the Prime Minister stated that interest had been renewed in the Blue Horizon and Savannah hotels, which have both gone out to tender.
“So the future is bright in terms of tourism,” she said.
jeniquebelgrave@barbadostoday.bb
