Terra Caribbean CEO supports Hyatt

Chief Executive Officer of Terra Caribbean, Andrew Mallalieu supports the construction of Hyatt Hotel or any multi-storey hotel on the site at Lower Bay Street, The City.

The property and real estate expert is the latest person to add his voice to those who have over the past months stated a case for and against the construction of a hotel at that location.

 

Back in July last year, management of the Hyatt hotel signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with local developers on the project to build the resort. Work at that time was slated to commence in two months, but it is yet to get off the ground.

 

“I have heard a lot and I have read a lot of people criticising a multi-storey development at Lower Bay Street as being ‘not in the national interest’. I have not heard any empirical evidence, I have not heard anyone who has told me why they feel that way. I will tell you why I feel opposite to that, why I think it is a very good thing to have these multi-storey hotels in that particular location between Bridgetown and the Hilton. I believe that we have very scarce resources in Barbados.”

 

He added, “I think that the Hyatt… and any other proposal for a multi-storey hotel in that particular location is a very good use of our land. I think it is in keeping with our buying policy and I personally support that it would happen.”

 

Mallalieu, who spoke at Capri Development on Wednesday where his company launched The Red Book 2017- their real estate catalogue, also shared the view “that small projects like the Hyatt will probably bring significant investment back into Bridgetown.”

 

He additionally put forward a case of why a hotel built at the location should be a multi-storey.

 

“There is only so much beach that God has created and He has not created anymore, that I am aware of, and we need to make the maximum use of that and if you want to build a hotel of any significance, let’s say you choose to build it in 20 storeys, if you are successful in telling me that I should only build it in 20 storeys you would have to build it four times as wide to get the same number of rooms. So in effect what it seems to me that people are arguing for is to use more of our beach for less rooms. I feel completely opposite. I think we should go up in the air because that is what we have, that space. We should…not build these smaller properties that block us all from the beach.”