jueves, 16 de julio de 2009

PANAMA NEW CONDO-HOTELS CONCEPT

This format will come to alleviate the lack of rooms in Panama City
In the province of Panama there are 72 hotels with 7,456 rooms, as indicated by the Panamanian Institute of Tourism IPAT . According to preliminary numbers of this institution, last year the hotel occupation in Panama City surpassed 65%. Whereas the last year 1,358,051 visitors entered the country, 17.4% more than in 2006, the numbers of available rooms in the capital city have remained short and in other words the demand surpasses the supply.
At the moment it is difficult to obtain available rooms in Panama City, reason why some investors have seen an opportunity to try to alleviate this situation by bringing the concept of condo-hotels to Panama. The format of the condo-hotel consists on a buyer of an apartment with a previous agreement with the hotel’s administration and who defers his residence for hotel use.
Both parts decide on a commission for the use of that building. Jorge Loaiza, president of the Panamanian Association of Hotels APATEL showed that the construction of these condo-hotels would greatly alleviate the demand on hotels, since hotel occupation is high and there are no rooms available. He explained, that the condo-hotel concept means that the client can buy an apartment with two alternatives. First is, that he buys it and uses it exclusively for himself or second is, that he defers it to the hotel so that it rents it out with all the hotel services when the client does not use it.
Advantages
“The advantage is that the client is receiving an additional income when he is not using the apartment, that is, not having it closed up doing nothing, but he is receiving money and he is providing the service and maintenance as if it were a hotel”, said. Loaiza. As a matter of fact, a similar format is put in practice at the Decameron hotel, located in Farallón, with the golf course villas.
Under this system, the hotel has around 180 villas for rent, commented Loaiza, adviser to the president of the Decameron chain of hotels. The hotelkeeper said that the acceptance of this system in Decameron has been excellent, since it is also a way to be able to take more people into the hotel, because there are room limitations. In order to make use of the room, the owner of the property must coordinate with the hotel the days he wishes to use it. Loaiza indicates that when a contract is set for a condominium to be used by the hotel, the hotel has the priority in case that the unit has been rented out.
Some Projects
Between some of the condo-hotels that are expected for construction in the capital city are The Orchid Residences, Megapolis by Decameron, Sfera, among others. The Orchid Residences is a five star property that will be located in the center of the banking district of Panama. Elías Mizrachi, commercial manager of Procasa which will build this condo-hotel indicates that the owner of the unit could use it for four weeks per year in intervals of a week with prior reservation, without cost and the rest of the time refer its residence to a rent program administered by Benchmark Hospitality International company, a company of high quality resort, shopping center and hotel services.
The project at the moment is under construction since the beginning of March 2008 with an investment of US$20 million. The company indicates that The Orchid will have 180 studios and one-bedroom residences. The units of The Orchid Residences can offer attractive income to their proprietors, which can be used to pay off their own costs for the property, such as mortgage payments, maintenance expenses or taxes. The units are sold completely decorated and furnished, therefore avoiding any additional cost when buying a property. The administrator covers the operational costs, such as, personnel and other direct expenses.
Rents
This company has planned to begin the rent of these suites at around US$180 per night. It is expected to have the project ready in two years. During its construction it is considered to generate around 700 direct and indirect jobs. Another project that is expected to be built is Sfera. Michelle Saint Malo de Carbonell, is one of the owners of the company Great Estates Services Panama, company contracted to be the master broker of Interplus, which develops projects in Balboa Avenue, in Panama City as is the case of the Sfera project. Sfera has approximately 70 floors and at the moment its promoters are in negotiations to choose the hotel franchise that will manage the project.
The location of Sfera is Balboa Avenue, in the old Importadora del Este Importer of the East . The project is in presale and the design is being finished. It will have a social area, jacuzzi, Spa, miniature golf, Squash field, business center, security and 24 hour Internet. Saint Malo mentioned that for example, if the client buys a unit at US$300,000. She assures him that the hotel will annually give him a check of between 10% to 15% return to his investment, instead of having it in a bank. If the hotel is at its maximum capacity and rents the entire year, the return is higher, this varies from project to project.
The executive indicated that generally the condo-hotels have between 40 to 65 meters of space; it’s like a mini suite of a hotel with a bed, living room and bath with the services of a hotel such as cleaning, laundry, restaurants, bar and others. Another one of these condo-hotels is Megapolis by Decameron, which will be managed by the Decameron chain of hotels. In this project US$500 million will be invested and will be built next to the hotel Radisson Decápolis which is also operated by the Decameron hotel chain. The Megapolis by Decameron will have two towers, one of 63 floors with 855 units and a second of 80 floors with 1,200 rooms.

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