Nicosia wants 5-star hotel, new conference centre for Cyprus

The Nicosia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (EVEL) wants to see the capital regain its crown as the primary venue for conferences on the island, calling on the government to revive the International Conference Centre in Aglandjia and develop the abandoned Philoxenia into a 5-star hotel.
Chamber president Christodoulos Angastiniotis said that the site should be developed in a design-build-operate-transfer (DBOT) contract in time for when Cyprus hosts the EU presidency in 2012.
Angastiniotis said that the Chamber-controlled Nicosia Tourism Development Company could undertake such a task, raising EVEL’s objection to current plans to repair only the Conference Centre at a cost of EUR 10-12 mln.
Responding to criticism that hoteliers say Nicosia cannot accommodate another 5-star hotel, Angastiniotis said EVEL does not rely on information received from the hoteliers, but prefers data from the Cyprus Tourism Organisation suggesting that the capital could do with another luxury hotel, despite public fears that such a plan would fail to meet a hotel’s capacity.
Older plans that, too, have been abandoned included upgrading the State Fair in Makedonitissa to a multi-purpose centre with conference facilities and a boutique hotel within its grounds.
Asked why Nicosia needed another conference centre when an ambitious Centre for the Arts will be built at a cost of EUR 120 mln that would also include conference facilities, Angastiniotis said the new hotel and conference centre complex would complement the Centre for the Arts.
“Besides, the budget for that project is predetermined and cannot be used for any other pruipose.”
“Nicosia also needs a new museum and a new municipal theatre,” he told journalists at the launch of a book recording EVEL’s 55-year history.
“The Eleftheria Square project is proceeding as planned and will be completed on time, while the new GSP development will include a park, underground parking for 2,000 cars and other buildings,” Angastiniotis added.
He also said that the government’s plan to build the new Finance Ministry without making the necessary provision for ample parking for all the civil servants working there, was “criminal”.
At the same time, the developers of a nearby office block for PricewaterhouseCoopers have seen their costs go up as the municipality forced contractor J&P to include a 3-storey underground parking facility.
Christis Christoforou, CEO of Deloitte Cyprus, that sponsored the EVEL book, said that the firm’s new premises on the busy Spyrou Kyprianou Ave. (formerly Santa Rosa), will be completed in the summer of 2010 and that local authorities had obliged them to incorporate “at least” two storeys of underground parking.
“We have taken it a step further and will have three levels of parking,” he said.
Angastiniotis said that in order for the economy to prosper once again, EVEL has called for the reduction of bank interest rates to businesses, government aid to inject liquidity into the market, the immediate promotion of large public projects (marinas, theme parks, gold courses, casino), the introduction of measures to help the tourism and construction sectors, overseas promotion to attract foreign investors, a reduction in red tape and the enhancement of road works in the capital to put an end to the troubles of businesses and citizens alike.
EVEL’s 55-year anniversary book is only available in Greek and will be sold for 50 euros. A suggestion has been put forward to distribute the book to schools for the younger generation to learn more about the capital’s history, but an electronic version or website has not been planned.