$220M Hilton Garden Inn to create 550 jobs

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

[rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt]rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Con­struc­tion on a new in­ter­na­tion­al­ly brand­ed ho­tel in South Trinidad is ex­pect­ed to be­gin with­in the next 60 days, bring­ing an es­ti­mat­ed 400 jobs dur­ing the build­ing phase and a fur­ther 150 per­ma­nent po­si­tions up­on com­ple­tion.

The $220 mil­lion project—a 120-room Hilton Gar­den Inn with a con­ven­tion cen­tre—is be­ing de­vel­oped by Su­pe­ri­or Ho­tels Lim­it­ed and is ex­pect­ed to be com­plet­ed in just un­der two years, with an open­ing tar­get­ed for April 2028.

Speak­ing at the sod-turn­ing cer­e­mo­ny in San Fer­nan­do yes­ter­day, di­rec­tor of Su­pe­ri­or Ho­tels Lim­it­ed, John Aboud, said the de­vel­op­ment is ex­pect­ed to play a ma­jor role in re­vi­tal­is­ing eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty in the south.

“We pro­pose to start con­struc­tion with­in the next 60 days, or be­fore,” Aboud said, adding that the project would “kick off the Prime Min­is­ter’s re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion pro­gramme, par­tic­u­lar­ly in South Trinidad.”

He not­ed that the in­vest­ment would not on­ly gen­er­ate em­ploy­ment but al­so strength­en lo­cal ca­pac­i­ty, with the en­tire con­sult­ing team—rang­ing from ar­chi­tects to en­gi­neers—com­prised of Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als.

“I in­sist­ed in my ne­go­ti­a­tions that this be so, not on­ly be­cause the tal­ent ex­ists lo­cal­ly, but al­so to save valu­able for­eign ex­change,” Aboud said.

He added that the project has ben­e­fit­ed from strong col­lab­o­ra­tion with Gov­ern­ment agen­cies, de­scrib­ing the en­gage­ment as “pos­i­tive,” with “prompt de­ci­sions” that gave in­vestors con­fi­dence to move for­ward.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who de­liv­ered the fea­ture ad­dress, un­der­scored the im­por­tance of the project as a sym­bol of eco­nom­ic mo­men­tum and a shift from stalled de­vel­op­ments of the past.

“Con­struc­tion is ex­pect­ed with­in 60 days, and we plan to hold you to that,” she said, draw­ing ap­plause from the au­di­ence.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the de­vel­op­ment rep­re­sents more than just a ho­tel, de­scrib­ing it as a key eco­nom­ic as­set for the re­gion.

“This project will bring em­ploy­ment—jobs, jobs, jobs,” she said. “Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 400 jobs dur­ing con­struc­tion and 150 per­ma­nent jobs af­ter com­ple­tion.”

She added that the in­vest­ment would al­so cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties be­yond di­rect em­ploy­ment, in­clud­ing sup­port for farm­ers, small busi­ness­es and sup­pli­ers who would be in­te­grat­ed in­to the ho­tel’s sup­ply chain.

“This is the kind of in­vest­ment that sup­ports our com­mit­ment to cre­at­ing sus­tain­able jobs for the peo­ple of our land,” she said.

The Prime Min­is­ter high­light­ed the strate­gic lo­ca­tion of the project, not­ing that it sits with­in a cor­ri­dor of ma­jor na­tion­al in­fra­struc­ture, in­clud­ing the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my, the Na­tion­al Aquat­ic Cen­tre, the Na­tion­al Cy­cling Velo­drome, the Cou­va Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal, and the Point Lisas In­dus­tri­al Es­tate.

“This is not sim­ply a ho­tel,” she said. “It is an eco­nom­ic as­set.”

She ex­plained that the de­vel­op­ment is ex­pect­ed to sup­port a wide range of eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ties, from sports tourism and health­care ser­vices to busi­ness trav­el and in­dus­tri­al op­er­a­tions, help­ing to dri­ve growth across mul­ti­ple sec­tors.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar al­so point­ed to the project as ev­i­dence of a broad­er shift in gov­er­nance and eco­nom­ic man­age­ment.

“Projects must move be­yond an­nounce­ment. Projects must be built, and projects must cre­ate re­al op­por­tu­ni­ties for the peo­ple,” she said.

She con­trast­ed the ini­tia­tive with sev­er­al pre­vi­ous­ly an­nounced ho­tel de­vel­op­ments that failed to ma­te­ri­alise, ar­gu­ing that her ad­min­is­tra­tion is fo­cused on de­liv­ery and tan­gi­ble out­comes.

“To­day marks a shift in­to ex­e­cu­tion,” she said. “Peo­ple can now see re­sults and feel the ben­e­fits.”

The project is al­so part of a wider move to­wards pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships, which the Prime Min­is­ter said would al­low for large-scale de­vel­op­ment with­out bur­den­ing tax­pay­ers.

“The mon­ey will not come from tax­pay­ers’ pock­ets,” she said. “It will come from the pri­vate sec­tor, and that is a ma­jor step for­ward for in­vest­ment.”

Aboud echoed that sen­ti­ment, as­sur­ing that in­vestors are com­mit­ted to play­ing their part in na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

“As in­vestors in our coun­try, we will en­sure that your ob­jec­tives are re­alised,” he said.

Both Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Aboud agreed that the suc­cess of the project will be mea­sured not by its launch, but by its com­ple­tion and im­pact.

She said if de­liv­ered as planned, the ho­tel is ex­pect­ed to boost tourism, stim­u­late busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ty and cre­ate a rip­ple ef­fect of op­por­tu­ni­ties across the re­gion, sig­nalling a new phase of growth for the south­land.