THE Georgetown City Council heard on Monday how the owners of ‘Houston Estates’ owe the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) in excess of $400M, although they are trying to sell their lands for a whopping $5B.

The Guyana Chronicle understands that the City Council offered an objection on the land transport which is currently lodged with the registrar because of the enormous amounts owed in rates and taxes.

But Redstart Investments, the company purchasing the lands, has since filed an action on the City Council to have the transport released.

Speaking with this publication after the statutory meeting at City Hall, Mayor Ubraj Narine offered that the Vieira-owned Houston Estates ought to clear all of their outstanding taxes before it can receive its compliance.

“You have north, south sections of Rome, and all these others sections…you need to clear the rates and taxes to get your compliance. So I am asking humbly for us to have dialogue so that we can get our part of the share in rates and taxes,” Narine expressed.
He explained that Town Clerk, Sherry Jerrick, wrote asking for a meeting with Houston Estates. “Mr. Lopes, the secretary, came for the meeting with us last November 18. We asked for additional documents from them for us to go through the right procedure because I believe that dialogue needs to happen on both sides. To date, no one came to us,” he said.

The town clerk wrote again, and so did the mayor. “I also wrote to them giving them a deadline and to date, nothing at all. The deadline passed of course.”
Meanwhile, Redstart Investments, which owns Unicomer and other businesses in Trinidad, the British Virgin Islands and Belize, is buying over 52 acres of land in the Houston/Rome area.

“Transport of Area ‘SR4’, a portion of Plantation Rome (South Section), in the city of Georgetown, in the country of Demerara… the said Areas SR4 containing an area 52.5774 acres being shown on a plan by E.[Enrique] G Monize, Sworn Land Surveyor dated the 10th day of January, 2019 and recorded at the Department of Lands and Surveys on the 25th day of February, 2019 as plan No.71468 and deposited in the Deeds Registry of Georgetown on the 5th day of April, 2019, no building and erections thereon and subject to the following conditions: The said plot of land is for residential, commercial and industrial purposes to Redstart Investments Guyana Inc., a company duly incorporated in Guyana under the Companies Act of Guyana, 1991, whose registered address is situated at Lots 25-25 Main Street Georgetown, Guyana,” read a notice in the Official Gazette.