Ambassador hotel to be completed on 2010

CONSTRUCTION work on the first phase of the rebuilding of the country’s premiere Ambassador hotel which would be known as Movenpick Ambassador Hotel which began in May 2008 is expected to be completed by October 2010, Clovis Abi Nader, Project Manager, Owner Representative of Kingdom Khi Ghana Limited, has said.

He said the workers are poised to ensure that no matter how bad the weather would be, whether rain or shine and working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to ensure that by the October deadline, the hotel would be in operation.

“As developers, it is in our best interest and to the best interest for Ghana to finish the project on time,” he emphasised.

Mr. Nader gave the hint when he led a delegation of workers to pay a courtesy call on the Minister for Tourism, Juliana Azumah-Mensah in her office to brief her about progress of work so far, and later on conducted her round the project site.

He said the 100-million dollar project which is expected to be the first five-star deluxe hotel, when completed, would have about 260 rooms, one Presidential suite, a restaurant with a seating capacity of 350, children’s pool, 50 executive suites, an 800-seat multi-purpose ballroom, a banquet hall, among others.

Currently, about 700 Ghanaians have been employed to work on the project, and the number is likely to rise up to a 1,000, said Mr. Nader, who also mentioned that over 3,000 Ghanaians would be engaged to work at the hotel upon completion, stressing that only a few expatriate workers in some managerial positions.

The project is in three phases, with phase one consisting of 10 secured apartments, and is being built with new and bigger state-of-the-art plans and architecture that will put it in a five-star deluxe category globally.

In May 2006, Ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor cut the sod for construction work to begin on, and was expected to be completed in August 2008. However, the Project Manager mentioned that construction work could not commence as scheduled due to land litigation with their neighbours.

“One of our neighbours had taken a part of the land illegally, which we had to reclaim it. And legally speaking, the process to us some time before we were to obtain our land title as it should be. So that delay the whole process,” Mr. Nader noted.

The Movenpick Ambassador Hotel, which is a joint venture between the Government of Ghana and the Saudi prince and businessman, Al Waleed Bin Talal Wahab Abdul Aziz Alsaud, is being undertaken by M. Barbisotti and Sons Limited, a Hahan Construction firm.

The Ambassador Hotel was built and donated to Ghana by the United Kingdom as an Independence Day gift but it started degenerating just about a decade into its operation and as such, the state decided to dispose of it.

The Minister after touring the site expressed satisfaction about the progress of work that has been put in place and hoped that the contractors would no more encounter any challenges to ensure that the October 2010 deadline that has been given would be a reality.

“We are grateful for the company for taking up this task. We have seen with our own eyes that what they have been telling us all along despite the challenges that they had to face, the hotel would be in operation in October 2010. We hope that they would hold on to their promise, and so we on our part want to assure them that whatever support they would need from the Ministry, we are ready to give to them so that they can complete the project as scheduled,” Mrs. Azumah-Mensah noted.

She was of the conviction that the hotel, when completed, would enhance the hospitality sector of the tourism industry, and for that matter, would attract a lot of tourists to the country, especially those who want to enjoy the taste of the Ghanaian hospitality and where they get relaxation with a five-star deluxe hotel.