Magnate vows thousands of new posts in landmark hotel project

Construction of the long-delayed Hyatt Ziva hotel at Carlisle Bay is finally set to begin in earnest within the next two months, said its developer, construction magnate Mark Maloney on Wednesday. The project marks a significant turning point for Bridgetown’s transformation and the island’s largest private investment to date.

“We just did the ground improvements, which is getting everything under the substructure ready to put the ground floor slab on and then to come up with the structure, and that’s all complete,” Maloney, executive chairman of The Maloney Group, told Barbados TODAY during the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Council’s 4th Annual Construction and Design Conference at Sandals Royal.

“We’ve been working over the last six months, so all the buildings below the substructure are finished, and we’re hoping to be able to start the actual concrete side of the foundation works over the next two months and then the vertical build. And two years after that, the project will be finished. So, we’re looking at the end of 2027 to complete the project, but everything is on schedule according to the schedule that we have.”

Over the last decade, the project has been stalled by planning permissions, heritage concerns and financing hurdles.The allinclusive hotel now forms the central plank of the government’s plan to revitalise the capital with new commercial, residential, and hospitality projects.

Maloney stressed that the development represented a landmark investment. “It is the largest single project undertaken by a private investor in Barbados,” he declared. “It has taken us quite a while to get here, but we are just ticking the last set of boxes and should be moving ahead on the vertical build very soon.”

The Hyatt-branded hotel will deliver 380 new rooms on Carlisle Bay to breathe new life into the city and complement other developments, he said.

He added: “Having Hyatt brand here with us, having 380 new hotel rooms on Carlisle Bay, we’re residential and waking up Bridgetown, bringing Bridgetown and everything associated with it to life, as well as Pierhead has started, you have Royalton has started, so many other projects that are ongoing and the activity in Barbados, the buzz in the sector, in the hospitality and the housing and the commercial buildings… you can feel the energy in the country, you can feel the positivity, you can feel the confidence.”

Maloney emphasised that his company was reinvesting heavily. “All of the money that we made, we’re putting it back into the economy… if we as local business people have confidence, that will bring the confidence from the investors from overseas and Barbados is poised for a good future,” he said.

The project is also expected to create at least 2 000 construction jobs with 1 200 jobs for the hotel, Maloney said.

He added: “Because Barbados has 6 000 hotel keys, we have 4 000 Airbnb and then 6 000 villas, so 16 000 keys in total for visitors.

And when we grow that by what is on the cards right now, you’re going to add another, you know, say 2 000 hotel keys; that’s 6 000 jobs.”

When it was announced in July 2016, the project was originally conceived as a 237- room boutique, urban hotel experience under the Hyatt Centric banner. The resort was later rebranded under the international hotel chain’s Ziva brand of family-friendly, all-inclusive hotels. No explanation was offered at the time for the switch. (SB)