The leading government vocational school system, Infotep announced it will not be installing a training center at the Hotel Guarocuya as President Luis Abinader had announced in 2022. The training center would have been key to prepare the support staff for major tourism and complementary ventures in the Southwest.
The hotel built during the Trujillo dictatorship has 55 rooms facing the Caribbean Sea.
Infotep explains there have been difficulties in taking over the facility. A popular news commentor, Melton Pineda was named consul general in Sao Paulo, during the Medina administration. In 2014, Pineda’s company, Pineda Medina, SRL signed a contract with the Medina administration of the time to remodel and administer the Barahona hotel for 27 years. His contract stipulated he would pay RD$18,000 a month tax free and would remodel the beach front Barahona city hotel. The contract did not stipulate the investment to improve and upkeep the hotel.
As reported in El Nuevo Diario, Infotep recently has relinquished its interest in developing the vocational school project on grounds that despite efforts, it has been impossible to receive the complete installations of the Hotel Guarocuya free of conflict, in particular with the relationship with Inmobiliaria Pineda Medina, SRL, the divested concessionaire of the property.
In a letter returning the project to CorpHotel, Infotep says that the real estate company alleges that its interests have not been satisfied. Infotep says it ends its involvement and returns the property to Corphotels, to ensure the security and care of the hotel, to the end to continue safeguarding this property of the State.
In October 2022, President Luis Abinader announced his administration would pass the administration of the historic Hotel Guarocuya in Barahona to the Instituto Nacional de Formación Técnico Profesional (Infotep). The intention was to build the Centro Tecnológico Hotel Escuela Turística Guarocuya at the site to train people to work in tourism development ventures and others in the southwest of the country.
As reported in Arecoa, the Pineda Medina family has other hotel properties in the Colonial City.
Read more in Spanish:
El Nuevo Diario
Arecoa
Hotel Guarocuya
12 June 2024