-some 150 Guyanese to be employed

THE last of three Marriott hotels is preparing for its grand opening in December, at Ogle, East Coast Demerara. The hotel will feature 152 rooms, adding to the local room stock, and will employ approximately 150 Guyanese team members.

Similar to the Courtyard by Marriott near the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri, East Bank Demerara, the new AC by Marriott is conveniently located less than a minute from the Eugene F Correia International Airport. The International hotel aims to create a unique ambience and vibe, coming complete with a pool area, entertainment area, comfortable, modern rooms and many other amenities.

Speaking with this media house ahead of the opening, John Aboud the Chairman of TRINUYANA Investments Inc., revealed that the AC Marriott is one of the more modern Marriott brands in the world today.

Delving further, Aboud shared that the AC in AC by Marriott stands for Antonio Catalan, the developer of several hotels in Europe and founder of the hotel brand.

“So, the AC Marriott brand was originally a European brand. Several hotels in Europe are developed by this fellow, Antonio Catalan. And Marriott liked what they saw. It was a modern hotel. So, they bought out his chain of hotels in Europe and decided to have a new flag and call it the AC Marriott. So that’s where the name came from,” he explained.

Continuing, Aboud underscored that this is not a classical hotel, and emphasised that it is “more modern with a European touch.”

Aboud indicated that the AC is geared towards business and tourism, with heavy emphasis on business.

“Guyana, being the country it is over the last few years, and moving forward, we felt that that was the best brand to utilise for our hotel; and that’s why we chose the AC Marriott,” Aboud stated.

He expressed that they are confident that the tourism element of the hotel will “kick-off” soon, noting that when persons who are here on business have concluded their business, they will want to experience all forms of relaxation.

Aboud reminded this publication that the AC Marriott is an action place, where businesspeople meet for business and to socialise.

The hotel isn’t all that will be showcased to the public. A strip plaza, within the same compound, will provide guests and visitors with more variety in terms of food and entertainment.

Additionally, Aboud announced that they will be constructing a housing development, townhouse development, and commercial space.

“We’re going to be building three commercial buildings for rental, for office space. The first one, as I say, we are hoping to start in January; and very shortly, you’ll see a big billboard going up on the highway side for a big lifestyle centre of about 80 or 90,000 square feet of space for retail and supermarket and whatever else.

“People want to do business, want to open a new business. So, it’ll be a good opportunity for new businesspeople to get involved in business. And it’s located right on the highway there,” he related.

Furthermore, Aboud mentioned that the support received from the Guyana Government through agencies such as the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest), and the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), was “unbelievable.”

Aboud expressed, “I was very pleasantly surprised. Everybody, all the participants had a single focus of doing whatever is necessary within the law…doing whatever is necessary to ensure that there are no hurdles or barriers that could not have been overcome legitimately.”

The AC by Marriott is slated for opening on December 8, 2025, and was constructed at a cost of approximately US$50 million.