EFE via 14ymedio, Havana, 27 April 2018 — Cuban authorities will construct a 5-star, 42-story, 500 foot high hotel, the tallest of its type in Havana, the official media informed the island today.
The 565-room facility, which will begin construction in September, will be located in the central area at 23rd and K streets, in the heart of El Vedado neighborhood and in front of the emblematic Coppelia ice cream parlour, according to Deysi Malvares, director of development for Almest, the State real estate company.
The first thirteen months of this investment, with 100 percent Cuban capital, will focus on constructing the basement and access areas, and then the rest of the building will be built over a period of two and a half years, according to information from Almest cited by the Cuban News Agency (ACN).
The new hotel, planned to open in 2022, will outshine its neighbor, the emblematic 25-story Habana Libre, which stands 416 feet high, which after its opening in 1958 was the tallest hotel in Latin America.
Currently the tallest structure in Havana is the monument to Cuban hero José Martí, a tiered pyramid that stands 466 feet above the Plaza of the Revolution. From the top of the monument visitors can enjoy a 360-degree panoramic view of the entire city.
Almest reports that there are other 5-star hotel projects planned for Cuba’s capital city, in an investment program that contemplates the construction of 7,500 rooms by the year 2025.
Last year, Havana premiered the Grand Hotel Manzana Kempinski, Cuba’s first five-star-plus luxury tourist facility, built with 100% Cuban capital by Almest and the Union of Military Constructions International Economic Association (UCM)-Bouygues.
Official projections by Cuban tourist authorities for 2018 anticipate five million visitors, with the aim of breaking the previous records of almost 4.7 and 4.5 million travelers who arrived on the island in 2017 and 2016, respectively.
But to accommodate these aspirations for tourism growth new hotels must be opened, including 15 this year alone, with the goal of having more than 100,000 rooms by 2030 in the country’s main cities.
Cuba currently has some 68,000 rooms in 366 hotels, more than half of which are operated by 88 contracts with 20 international chains.
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