Al Edwards, Financial Editor 
COOPER
LUXURY HOTEL chain the Ritz-Carlton is to continue with its expansion in the Caribbean region despite the havoc and destruction wreaked by successive hurricanes.
The Ritz-Carlton was all set to open a hotel on the Cayman Islands just after Christmas but that has now been postponed. Speaking with the Financial Gleaner the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company's President and chief operating officer (COO) Simon Cooper said: "the infrastructure of our Cayman hotel sustained no damage from Hurricane Ivan other than some water getting in on the ground floor. The first floor was slightly flooded. We were lucky that those areas had no carpeting or furniture. The hotel is in great shape physically, unfortunately one can't say the same about the islands. As soon as the islands' infrastructure is back in working order and we can begin to re-order goods and supplies, we will be open for business which will probably be in the second quarter of next year."
Mr. Cooper said that the Cayman Islands was decimated by Hurricane Ivan and it is only now that utilities are beginning to return to pockets of the country.
IVAN DAMAGE
He said that the country should now think about putting its power lines underground as a safety measure. He observed that the infrastructure was so badly damaged that the country can now take the opportunity to make it far better than it previously was.
"The level of destruction on the island is truly awesome. There is not a green leaf on the trees and everything is down. Everything is a mess. The reason why our hotel stood up to the hurricane is as a result of the South Florida building code specification of which we adhere to."
All Ritz-Carlton hotels in the region are built to South Florida building code specifications which Mr. Cooper says is perhaps more expensive but has proven resilient against some of the more fierce hurricanes to visit the region. Miami insists that contractors abide by the code although the Caribbean does not.
" I think if you are going to build a luxury hotel, it should be required but I don't automatically assume that to be the case for all-inclusive mid-market hotels. The cost of doing it may not be worth it because you may well inhibit the kind of development you want. We do it as a matter of course and in Jamaica we were happy to take guests from other hotels. At Rosehall we have our own electricity and water units and we are totally self sufficient. It is amazing to me that our windows withstood 200 a mile an hour winds. Over in Cayman Ivan was picking up shipping containers and effortlessly tossing them all over the place. The scaffolding over our Cayman Islands construction stood up well and that too is confounding."
The luxury hotel chain's plans for the region will continue with construction of its Turks and Caicos hotel expected to begin this month. This will be a 125 room hotel with 60 residential units in close proximity available for sale. There are also plans to build a hotel in Aruba which is presently at the developmental stage. It may take a further four years before ground is broken on that project.
FOUR HOTELS IN THE
CARIBBEAN REGION
The Ritz-Carlton has four hotels in the Caribbean region with Grand Cayman Island to open within the next six months making five. These include properties in Jamaica, St. Thomas and San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 2001 there were plans to open a hotel in Antigua but the events of September 11 derailed those. Mr. Cooper said that that project may well be revisited.
"I think Jamaica needs to have a robust luxury hotel presence. On the other hand I have to take my hat off to Jamaica in that it is able to attract these mid market hotel operators because this is where the majority of the market is and where the jobs are. The tourism sector in Jamaica will grow significantly over the next ten years. Jamaica is getting a lot of business from many of the islands right now. Lift and access is critical."
Would the Ritz-Carlton contemplate building another hotel in Jamaica?
" Yes indeed. We have done very well with our Rosehall hotel which has 427 rooms and that is an indication that we could have a significant presence here. If we were to do something else here it would be a smaller hotel which would be complimentary to our Montego Bay hotel. Once you have one hotel it is more efficient to develop another. This hotel employs 800 people and has a positive cash flow but there is still work to be done before we went ahead with another hotel. I am very supportive of what the Government is doing in Port Antonio and that is a viable location for a second Ritz-Carlton. Mind you the size of Port Antonio does not lend itself to big hotels so we would as I said have to develop a smaller more intimate operation. With the marina and more retail outlets in Port Antonio, that would be more complimentary to our project if we were to go that route."
