New Hyatt Hotel Construction Set to Begin in Barbados Following $100M Financing Deal

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ight years after it was first planned, construction of a new Hyatt Hotel is to finally begin this year, with the hotel opening its doors by 2026, as part of a US$100 million ($200 million) financing deal prominent businessman Mark Maloney has struck with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).

While US$90 million ($180 million) is to build the hotel, a trade finance agreement worth US$10 million ($20 million) will link Maloney with another cement maker and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, to import cement-making materials for Maloney’s Rock Hard Cement. Dangote Cement is the continent’s largest producer.

The deals were signed with Afreximbank, represented by Gwen Mwaba, director and global head of trade finance, on day two of the bank’s Annual Meetings and AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum at the Baha Mar Convention Centre in Nassau on Thursday.

Maloney revealed that his company had been working with Afreximbank on the $330 million (US$165 million) Hyatt project, and the bank had agreed to “take the lead on the debt side” by financing the Bay Street hotel’s construction.

“It will be the springboard for what we believe is going to be major in the hotel business in Barbados because the banks have been hesitant in lending money on greenfield projects, meaning new projects,” the developer said. “The banks are waiting for the first deal to be done to do the next deal, so hopefully this will show that there is confidence in lending money to such projects because Afreximbank is a large bank and has shown that it has confidence in Barbados and the region.”

He said construction should start within a few months, “hopefully, by the fourth quarter of this year”, with completion expected in 18 months to two years.

In July 2016, Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced that a Hyatt affiliate had entered into a management agreement with Vision Developments Inc. for a Hyatt Centric hotel at Carlisle Bay. The hotel, named Hyatt Centric Carlisle Bay, Barbados, was expected to open in 2019 and mark the first Hyatt-branded hotel here.

But in May 2020, it was reported that Hyatt had switched from the Hyatt Centric brand to the Hyatt Ziva all-inclusive resort brand. The new Hyatt Ziva Barbados project was scheduled to open in 2022 with 380 guest rooms, 40 condominiums and six premier rooms.

The trade finance facility secured by Maloney will seek to help his Rock Hard Cement expand, first in Barbados and Guyana.

“We will be manufacturing regionally, and then expanding on those opportunities. Having the facility through Afreximbank, we are then able to forge relationships with their other customers,” Maloney explained, adding that one such relationship would be with Dangote Cement to purchase raw materials.

Afreximbank president Benedict Oramah said the deal was “very significant”.

“Maloney Group is a major cement manufacturer. It processes clinker into cement and supplies many of the islands. It used to import this clinker from somewhere in Europe. But now with this facility means the clinker is likely to be coming from Dangote Cement,” he said. “This is an example of the kind of changes we will be seeing in the coming days, weeks, months and years.”