By Al Edwards,
Acting Financial Editor
THE CROWNE Plaza hotel, based in St. Andrew which was sold to the United States Embassy by the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC) in a US$8 million (J$360 million) deal is to undergo major internal and external structural work which will see the hotel not being fully occupied by the U.S. Embassy personnel for up to another 36 months.
Speaking to Wednesday Business the head of U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Michael Korff said: "The hotel needs extensive work if it is to meet U.S. Embassy standards and adequately house our personnel. At this moment in time there isn't a sprinkler system and there is a need to transform sections of the hotel into adequate living quarters. This summer should see construction work begin to create apartments."
Mr. Korff added that as a condition of the sale the Jamaican government made it clear that the former hotel was not to be utilised for the sole purpose of processing and administering immigration documents.
It is widely believed that this decision was taken to appease well-to-do Stony Hill residents who feared lines of people occupying the streets of the affluent suburb anxious to acquire visas and other immigration documents.
However Mr. Korff stressed that the United States has a policy of centralising its embassy operations rather than having them spread all over the country largely for security purposes. "No one can move in unless everybody moves " he said.
Another U.S. official said that there is a back entrance to the hotel that can adequately accommodate local citizens requiring immigration services from the Embassy.
The official wishing to remain anonymous said: " To get this hotel to fit our requirements will mean work being done via a phased programme beginning with assessment analysis and restructuring design work.
It is my understanding that the bottom floors need to be remodelled for offices to accommodate accounting and administration departments. That will take at least 12 months. Floors 5,6, and 7 will be residential and it is expected that these will be occupied within a 7 to 8 month period.
While building work is undertaken on the lower floors the residential sections are expected to be occupied. At the moment the hotel is undergoing the assessment stage."
Special security features
It now appears that most of the construction work will be undertaken by U.S. firms who will be required to fit in special security features into the former Crowne Plaza hotel.
The Government has come in for some criticism for selling the hotel far too cheaply at US$8 million. However the Ministry of Finance and Planning has said that the next best offer was for US$5 million.
The 130 room hotel/apartment complex was built by Paul Chen Young's Eagle financial Group before that financial institution collapsed. It is estimated that the property was constructed at a cost of $1 billion and cost further millions to fit out. The hotel formed part of the deal that saw Mr. Chen Young getting $1.00 in 1997 in return for the debt ridden remains of the Group.
During its four years of operation, the Crowne Plaza doubled as a hotel and apartment complex. With the building no longer serving as a viable hotel, there are thousands of Crowne Plaza stock for auction on the Internet.
A source close to the restructuring of the former hotel said that this latest exercise will cost the U.S. Embassy as much as a further US$4 million but still represented a very good deal as far as it is concerned.
