A Sau­di Ara­bi­an con­tin­gent, pho­tographed en­ter­ing Par­lia­ment on Fri­day, toured the Ch­aguara­mas Con­ven­tion Cen­tre, Ch­aguara­mas penin­su­la and To­ba­go's Mag­dale­na Grand Beach Re­sort to weigh their in­vest­ment po­ten­tial.The group, the Sun­day Guardian learned, is ready to in­vest some US$1 bil­lion in­to T&T and have al­ready met with Trade and In­vest­ment Min­is­ter Vas­ant Bharath and Hous­ing Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal dur­ing their short time in T&T.

The Sun­day Guardian un­der­stands that while the group dis­cussed sev­er­al in­vest­ment op­tions for the bil­lion­aire Sau­di busi­ness­men, at the top of the list is the ex­pan­sion and up­grade of To­ba­go's most ex­clu­sive re­sort, in­vest­ment in the Ch­aguara­mas Con­ven­tion Cen­tre and in­vest­ment in com­mer­cial and res­i­den­tial de­vel­op­ments on both is­lands.The group dis­cussed the pos­si­bil­i­ty of in­vest­ing in the con­struc­tion of an ex­clu­sive ho­tel and shop­ping mall rem­i­nis­cent of those in oil-rich Dubai.

Bharath, in a brief in­ter­view yes­ter­day, con­firmed that the men were at Par­lia­ment on Fri­day to meet with him and said this was the del­e­ga­tion's third vis­it to T&T."They are in­ter­est­ed in in­vest­ing in T&T. They are ex­treme­ly in­ter­est­ed in in­vest­ing in res­i­den­tial as well as com­mer­cial prop­er­ty," Bharath said.Bharath first met with the in­ter­est­ed in­vestors when his min­istry vis­it­ed the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates to re­ceive a World Bank Award for im­prove­ment in the pub­lic ser­vice de­liv­ery back in 2013.

"They have re­quest­ed a T&T pres­ence in Sau­di, that is an in­vesTT of­fice," Bharath said.He al­so con­firmed the con­tin­gent toured the Mag­dale­na Grand yes­ter­day, look­ing at the ex­pan­sion and up­grade op­tions.When asked if the men were look­ing to buy the ho­tel, Bharath said it was an in­vest­ment, not a pur­chase."In­vest in ex­pand­ing with the Gov­ern­ment," he said.

$200M to re­pair cen­tre

This most re­cent in­ter­est in the lo­cal ho­tels comes just days af­ter Op­po­si­tion leader Dr Kei­th Row­ley raised the ques­tion of the pos­si­ble di­vest­ment of the Ch­aguara­mas Con­ven­tion Cen­tre.Speak­ing at a cot­tage meet­ing in Mara­bel­la last week, Row­ley claimed that the Gov­ern­ment had dis­posed of eight acres of prime es­tate at Ch­aguara­mas, on which the con­ven­tion cen­tre and ho­tel were built.

Row­ley's com­ment prompt­ed Ch­aguara­mas De­vel­op­ment Au­thor­i­ty (CDA) chair­man Dan­ny Solomon and chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Jo­ce­lyn Har­g­reaves to re­veal that the area was not sold, but leased to In­site De­vel­op­ers.Like the Sau­di busi­ness­men, In­site De­vel­op­ers are seek­ing to "part­ner" with an in­ter­na­tion­al brand ho­tel man­age­ment op­er­a­tor for a four-star ho­tel in Ch­aguara­mas.

In a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, how­ev­er, Solomon said the vis­i­tors did not ac­tu­al­ly tour the ac­tu­al Con­ven­tion Cen­tre, but did a land and sea tour which showed them what the CDA had to of­fer and the rest of the Ch­aguara­mas penin­su­la.Solomon al­so said that the Con­ven­tion Cen­tre is in dire need of over $200 mil­lion in re­pairs. He said just two weeks ago, the T&T Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) de­clared that 75 per cent of the build­ing was un­safe and con­demned por­tions of the aged struc­ture.

"It is a drain and it should be a good thing if we are look­ing to di­ver­si­fy the in­come stream," Solomon saidAny pos­si­ble in­vest­ment could be a pos­i­tive move for the cen­tre, as Bharath de­scribed the Sau­di-linked in­vest­ments as "very high end" and sim­i­lar to projects in Dubai.Bharath said the US$1 bil­lion in­vest­ment is not the end, but rather the be­gin­ning as they will be mak­ing that mas­sive in­vest­ment "in the first in­stance."

Talks not done yet

The Sun­day Guardian con­tact­ed head of the Trinidad/Sau­di Cham­ber of Com­merce, Cana­di­an Shaz­a­ad Mo­hammed, who has Trinida­di­an lin­eage and cur­rent­ly lives in Sau­di Ara­bia, for com­ment on the pend­ing in­vest­ment yes­ter­day.Mo­hammed con­firmed that the Sau­di group had toured the Ch­aguara­mas Con­ven­tion Cen­tre and the Mag­dale­na Grand over the past two days."We have not made a de­ci­sion on ei­ther yet, but we are look­ing at in­vest­ments like that of the Mag­dale­na," Mo­hammed said.

He con­firmed that the group al­so toured sev­er­al beach front prop­er­ties in To­ba­go, look­ing at them for po­ten­tial in­vest­ments."In Trinidad we looked at the Ch­aguara­mas Con­ven­tion Cen­tre, look­ing at in­vest­ments there as well," Mo­hammed said.He said the Sau­di Ara­bi­an group al­so spoke with Gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tives re­gard­ing the con­struc­tion of a res­i­den­tial con­do in To­ba­go and a five-star ho­tel in Trinidad.

He said the Trinidad/Sau­di Cham­ber of Com­merce is al­ready plan­ning an­oth­er se­ries of high-lev­el talks with an­oth­er batch of in­vestors, with plans to vis­it T&T with them in the com­ing months.

ABout Mag­dale­na Grand Beach re­sort

The Mag­dale­na Grand Beach re­sort, lo­cat­ed in Low­lands, To­ba­go, is ful­ly owned by the Gov­ern­ment.Back in 2011, the run­down Plan­ta­tions es­tate un­der­went a mas­sive and ex­pen­sive ren­o­va­tion be­fore be­ing re­brand­ed as The Mag­dale­na.The same prop­er­ty was once the To­ba­go Hilton which closed back in 2008. In­ter­na­tion­al hote­liers be­hind the Hilton brand pulled their name from the ho­tel and the prop­er­ty was then of­fered on the mar­ket for just un­der $140 mil­lion.

In 2011, the Gov­ern­ment utilised US$25 mil­lion and un­der­took re­pair and re­brand­ing through Evolv­ing Tech­nolo­gies (eTeck).