metropolitan

Hotel Miramar’s land concession contested

Carlos Lemos/LA PRENSA

expired: Hotel Miramar has a dubious land concession that was awarded in 1993 and which authorities say has long since expired.1041772

In April 2007, Herman Bern, president of the Miramar Development Corporation, wrote to Ministro de Obras Públicas Benjamin Colamarco claiming that the Statement of Objections for the coastal expansion failed to mention the “disruptions” it would cause the Hotel Miramar Intercontinental. These included issues with the hotel’s parking, landscaping, marina and heliport.

Not once, however, did Bern acknowledge that the government concession granted to the hotel in 1993 for the operation of the marina and heliport had expired and was never renewed.

Colamarco responded quickly. On May 5, 2007, he drew up an addendum to the Statement of Objections that included a private agreement allowing the hotel to build a tunnel under the Cinta Costera’s new roads to gain access to the marina and heliport and 300 underground parking spaces.

Bern then approached Autoridad Marítima de Panamá (AMP), which had awarded the 1993 concession, negotiating certain “adjustments” to the hotel’s contract because the Cinta Costera project would reduce the land grant from 2.4 to 1.5 hectares.

The Contraloría, realizing that the hotel’s concession is no longer valid, has refused to endorse the new contract with the Miramar, claiming that it should have been arranged at the “beginning of the coastal strip studies.”

According to Second Vice President Rubén Arosemena, a resolution passed in 2005 automatically renews the Hotel Miramar’s 1993 concession.

The resolution to which Arosemena refers, however, contains a clause entitling the AMP to terminate any concession “when the area is required for any reason of public utility or social interest...or to carry out works of the state.”

In such cases, AMP is not required to give any compensation for the property, simply 90 days notice.

Meanwhile, the MOP reports that the Cinta Costera project is 25 percent complete, and should be open in June 2009.