New operators identified for GOJ hotels
Published:Wednesday | December 28, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Avia Collinder, Business Writer
Management partners have been indentified for two government-owned hotels formerly run by SuperClubs.
The former Breezes Rio Bueno hotel in Trelawny, owned by the National Insurance Fund (NIF) has been leased to Sun Wing Limited but will be operated by Blue Diamond Resorts Limited; while the former Super Fun Resort in Runaway Bay will now be under the management of Royal DeCameron, according to disclosures by the Ministry of Tourism.
The SuperClubs hotel group is owner of the Breezes, Grand Lido and Super Fun brands.
Audrey Deer-Williams, senior director for investments of the NIF, said Tuesday that the lease agreements do not mean that the government has put its plans to sell the North Coast resorts on hold.
"This is just a short-term measure to have the hotels opened for the winter season. Braco will be advertised soon," she told Wednesday Business.
Deer-Williams said Sun Wing is a Canadian tour company, well known in the travel trade and that Blue Diamond is its hotel-operating arm.
She declined to comment on the specifics of the Sun Wing deal, saying: "The terms whilst agreed have not been signed off on. The documents are with the company for signing."
new manager
The Runaway Bay property, meantime, is already being marketed under the name of its new manager as Royal DeCameron Caribbean Club.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which is in the process of seeking buyers for the hotel property, held through a company called Runaway Bay Development Limited (RBDL), indicated as late as mid-December its plan to advertise the property on the international market.
The hotel, which was formerly known as Hedonism III, is majority owned by the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ). The DBJ holds 54.35 per cent of RBDL; Scotia Investments owns 30.43 per cent; and SuperClubs, through Village Resorts, owns 15.22 per cent.
Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said the reopening of the resorts will put some 550 rooms back into operation, and that "the new operators of the resorts have given their commitment that their engagement with these hotels are long-term."
The tourism ministry said 900 jobs will become available under the two management deals and that the properties would open for business "soon".
Emails to Milverton Reynolds, the managing director of the Development Bank of Jamaica, to clarify whether the hotel was still up for sale were unanswered up to press time.
Earlier this month, PwC's Wilfred Baghaloo said the auditing and advisory firm was "about to place the property in the international newspapers" in the search for buyers both locally and overseas.
RBDL was placed in receivership in February to recover a debt of US$20 million, with PwC as receiver.
The DBJ holds a controlling majority of 54.35 per cent in RBDL; Scotia DBG Investments owns 30.43 per cent; and SuperClubs, through Village Resorts, owns 15.22 per cent.