Fijian workers at the Grand Pacific Hotel site yesterday. Photo: RAMA
By RANOBA BAOA
Suva’s hotel scene is set to take a major step forward this coming April.
That’s when the restored and redeveloped Grand Pacific Hotel on Victoria Parade is set to have a “soft” opening, it was confirmed yesterday.
The iconic hotel’s reconstruction is 78 per cent complete, journalists were told in a tour and presentation by the Grand Pacific Hotel Limited directors.
The ‘Grand Old Lady’ of Fijian hotels is being redeveloped and reopened in a joint venture between Papua New Guinea’s National Superannuation Fund, or NASFUND, and Fiji National Provident Fund Lamana Development of Papua New Guinea. NASFUND has a 50 per cent stake, and FNPF and Lamana 25 per cent each.
This is an investment of $90 million.
Lamana Development is the contractor/developer for the restoration project. The Lamana group is also a leading hotel operator in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.
Contractor building manager Rod Bradley, told Sun Business, the development includes meticulous moulding work with the pillars, columns and beams to restore them as they were during the hotel’s heyday.
Mr Bradley said:“The development is going forward, so we’re a 100 per cent complete on structure and some of the finishes and overall 78 per cent complete.”
Building compliance
Because the original building was built a century ago, some additional building codes have been implemented to comply with today’s building standards.
“We have to bring it up to an earthquake compliance code and the cyclone code,” he said.
Also the impact of years of neglect while the hotel lay idle have been fixed.
“Our specialised experts in structure restoration are doing a good job in this area,” he said.
Right on budget
Grand Pacific Hotel chairmanMel Togolo said while the restoration process encountered some hiccups along the way, they have managed to stay on budget.
“This is a significant project for us, it’s a big project and we are very happy and pleased that it is progressing very well, it’s on time and it continues to be on budget,” Mr Togolo said.
“You would see that this is a landmark hotel in Fiji, particularly in Suva and our involvement in this project also reflects the relationship between Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
“One of the other challenges was lack of cement in the country, so we had to reorganise and bring cement from overseas. Otherwise generally, the project has progressed reasonably well.”
Employment
Directly the construction involves the employment of 250 people and indirectly with subcontractors has about 400 people generally on site everyday, Mr Bradley said.
Mr Togolo said: “I’m very happy to see that we are employing a lot of Fijians in this project.
“I know Fiji has a big tourism industry but this project is a little bit different and I think it’s going to bring in new skills to this industry.”
Self-managed
In a release, company secretary, Neil Underhill said: “The directors have agreed that the hotel will be self managed. This represents a significant investment by the investment consortium for Fiji.”
The company directors are Mr Togolo, Ian Tarutia, Kostas Constantinou, Tom Ricketts and Jaoji Koroi.