State Trading Organisation (STO) has found an investor for the city hotel being developed in Hulhumale’.
Responding to a question at STO’s annual general meeting (AGM), Managing Director Hussain Amr said that STO initially found an investor to purchase its city hotel in 2019 but the deal fell through before reaching the agreement-signing stage due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the investor had decided to postpone investing in the tourism sector. He said STO then made other arrangements and found an investor through Housing Development Corporation (HDC). He expressed confidence that STO can now come to an agreement and sell the city hotel.
STO acquired a plot in Hulhumale’ Phase I for the development of the five-star city hotel in 2007. The development began in 2012, after STO signed an agreement with the Carlson Group which developed the international hotel chain Radisson Hotels.
STO had also sought a loan of USD10 million from the Exim Bank of Thailand for the development of the hotel. The project came to a standstill after the government ordered the project to be stopped in 2014. Afterwards, HDC signed an agreement with STO to develop the partially completed city hotel in 2020.