Grand Hyatt’s new design in 3 floors to fetch US$ 13,500 a day
The Grand Hyatt Colombo, owned by Sri Lanka’s biggest insurance and pension fund, now has a new structure and design with better space utlisation expected to fetch the government some US$ 13,500 income per day on some floors, according to Ministry of Public Enterprise Development officials. They said this project which was commissioned under the past regime has three floors – 40th to 42nd which were to be turned into penthouses and other facilities designated for ‘owners’. He said the penthouse facility would have cost $12 million or Rs. 1.6 billion to construct with no revenue for the state.
According to him the design in the said three floors at The Grand Hyatt, located on Galle Road opposite Temple Trees which began in 2008 as a 475 roomed, 42 story development ran into trouble when as Ceylinco Celestial Residencies this project was stopped after Ceylinco faced financial difficulties. The company was re-launched in 2011. The $40 million worth Grand Hyatt Colombo property project was taken over that year from the troubled Ceylinco Group by Sino Lanka, a subsidiary of Canwill Holdings, whose main shareholders are Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC), Litro Gas and the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF).
Grand Hyatt now consists of 1.1 million square feet built up area spread across 49 levels with 397 rooms, 61 suites and 100 serviced apartments, ranging from one to three bed rooms. The hotel will have 10 restaurants including three restaurants located at the 43/44 levels with spectacular views of the city and Indian Ocean, according to Sino Lanka. The Ministry of Public Enterprise Development which is now in the process of restructuring key State Owned Enterprises (SOE) is to issue bids for the three state hotels – namely the Hilton, Grand Hyatt and Grand Oriental to attract potential investors.