As ’14ymedio’ confirmed, the works are not yet finished.
14ymedio, Jose Lassa, Havana, 17 January 2025 — The opening of the Iberostar Cuba Selection, which occupies the controversial new skyscraper at 23 and K, in Havana’s Vedado, did not occur on January 15, as announced by Havanatur, which promotes the hotel managed by the Spanish firm. Nor did it take place on the 16th, since on Thursday the building remained closed, with scaffolding, cranes and workers lying on the sidewalk, as 14ymedio was able to confirm.
Asked when the work will be finished, the workers shrugged their shoulders: “We only know that the opening has been delayed, they say it will be on the 20th or so.” Although neither the Iberostar website nor that of the state agency Havanatur indicate a date, some tourist reservation sites do: starting on February 1, they are offering rooms from $483 to $959 per night.
Meanwhile, Cubans are increasingly criticizing the state’s investments in five-star tourist facilities. The latest thing that has provoked this is the hydraulic works that have been going on for weeks on Boyeros Avenue, without any government information, heading towards the neighborhood where the new luxury hotel is located, and about which the official press finally made a statement two days ago.
The new ‘Marino Palatino’ pipeline, was created, Cubadebate explained, and is intended to “replace a network of aging pipelines that has caused constant breaks and leaks, affecting approximately 72,250 inhabitants of the Cerro and Plaza de la Revolución municipalities.”
Without mentioning the K Tower – something that some commentators do, however, mention at the bottom of the article – the media acknowledges, speaking of the “population increase in the area” on “an already weakened system, increasing the need for drinking water”: “The hotel development planned in the area poses a challenge by further increasing demand.”
The building, first popularly known as the “López-Calleja Tower” – named after the late head of the military conglomerate Gaesa, owner of the facilities through one of its subsidiaries, Grupo Gaviota – and then as Torre K, has been surrounded by controversy since the moment its construction was announced in 2018. It represented, from the start, a waste of resources in an impoverished country.
As the building was being built, and with tourism at its lowest levels, technical criticism also began. Several architects pointed out the “mistakes” of the project, including the “pretentious gigantism,” the “insulated glass” that is dazzling in a tropical country, and the poor orientation of the hotel, with no views to the north, which would have been the best façade to orient the rooms so that they do not suffer from “that Caribbean sun that costs a lot of energy and money to cool.”
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