Spanish resort group to build three hotels here
GRUPO Pinero, one of Spain’s major hotel owners and operators, yesterday formally acquired a 200-acre property at Pear Tree Bay on Jamaica’s north coast, where it plans to build three 600-room hotels geared to European travellers.
Neither Pinero nor Tankweld Ltd, the construction and engineering company which sold the property, disclosed the value of their deal, but the development minister, Paul Robertson, said that Pinero’s plan for the 1,800 hotel rooms would make the investment “the largest single hotel development in Jamaica’s history”. Each property will cost between US$60 million and US$100 million.
The development is to be over three years, with the first phase being the construction of two properties which will include shopping and entertainment facilities.
Pinero already has hotels and tourism-related ventures in Spain, Portugal, Russia, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico and Brazil.
Encarna Pinero, a senior executive in the family-controlled group, said that Jamaica’s reputation in international tourism was a catalyst for Pinero’s decision to come to the island.
“Jamaica has a good name in Europe and we hope to capitalise on that by bringing more tourists to the destination,” she said at a signing ceremony in Kingston at the offices of the Government’s trade and investment promotion agency, JAMPRO.
The property that Pinero has acquired is located between Discovery Bay and Runaway Bay. The land already has in place development infrastructure and most environmental and planning approvals and according to Tankweld’s CEO, Chris Bicknell, it was the dream of his late father for it to have been developed into a resort.
“We are not just transferring to you our property, but also our dream of a resort development,” Bicknell told the Pinero executives at the signing.
“We are not ashamed to say that whilst the work we have done to date is invaluable to any developer, resort development is not our core business,” he added. “We know that you are better equipped to take over the development from here on, using your proven successful formula that you have replicated elsewhere in the world.”
Robertson stressed the importance of the proposed development to Jamaica’s plan to drive the growth of tourism, the island’s major earner of foreign exchange, at about US$1.2 billion annually.
Said Robertson: “We are excited about the Pinero Group, not just because of their ability to self-finance their land acquisitions and expansive project ideas, but also because they have the ability to use their own global marketing and distribution networks to sell their destinations.”