Might InterContinental Hotels Again Manage The Hotel Nacional de Cuba?
/Denham, United Kingdom-based InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (2015 revenues exceeded US$1.8 billion) manages more than 5,028 hotels (742,000 rooms) in nearly 100 countries.
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC brands include: InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton Hotels & Resorts, Hualuxe Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites, hotel Indigo, Even Hotels, and Crowne Plaza.
The company is the owner of a US$4,637,898.30 claim against the government of the Republic of Cuba certified by the United States Foreign Claims Settlement Commission (USFCSC) under the auspice of the United States Department of Justice.
The claim is for compensation due to the loss of its management contract of then National Hotel of Cuba (Hotel Nacional de Cuba). The management contract commenced on 1 August 1955 and was to terminate on 21 November 1989. The lease was intervened by the government of the Republic of Cuba on 10 June 1960.
The Libertad Act of 1996 authorizes individuals and companies subject to United States jurisdiction/law to engage in direct negotiations with the government of the Republic of Cuba to settle claims certified by the USFCSC.
In December 2015, the government of the United Kingdom participated in an agreement signed between members of the Paris Club of Creditor Nations and the government of the Republic of Cuba that reduced debt from US$11.1 billion to US$2.6 billion which will be repaid over an eighteen-year period.
From Wikipedia:
“In 1933, after Fulgencio Batista's 4 September 1933 coup against the transitional government, it was the residence of Sumner Welles, a special envoy sent by U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to mediate the crisis, and was the site of a bloody siege that pitted the officers of the Cuban army, who had been instrumental in the overthrow of Gerardo Machado (August 12. 1933), against the non-commissioned officers and other ranks of the Cuban army, who supported Batista. This would be the Battle of the Hotel Nacional of Cuba.
In December 1946 the hotel hosted the Havana Conference, an infamous mob summit run by Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky and attended by Santo Trafficante, Jr., Frank Costello, Albert Anastasia, Vito Genovese and many others. Francis Ford Coppola memorably dramatised the conference in his film The Godfather Part II.
By 1955, Lansky had managed to persuade Batista to give him a piece of the Nacional. That same year Pan Am's (New York-based Pan American World Airways) Intercontinental Hotels Corporation took over management of the hotel. Alphons Landa, prominent Washington attorney represented Pan Am and arranged for other clients and friends to acquire pieces of the hotel ownership at the same time. Dave Beck, President of the Teamsters and Roy Fruehauf of the Fruehauf Trailer Company were silent partners for at least 2 years. Fruehauf would sell his interest in the hotel in May 1957; other investors would lose everything when Castro came to power. Lansky planned to take a wing of the 10-storey hotel and create luxury suites for high-stakes gamblers. Batista endorsed Lansky's idea even though there were objections from American expatriates such as Ernest Hemingway. Under Lansky's impetus, a wing of the grand entrance hall was refurbished to include a bar, a restaurant, a showroom and a luxurious casino. It was operated by Lansky and his brother Jake, with Wilbur Clark as the front man.”
Claim By Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
As a result of a series of mergers and acquisitions during the last fifty-seven years, a US$51,128,927.00 claim initially made by New York-based International Telephone & Telegraph Corporation (ITT) is now controlled by Stamford, Connecticut-based Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (2015 revenues exceeded US$5.7 billion), which is being acquired by Bethesda, Maryland-based Marriott International (2015 revenues exceeded US$14 billion), which can use this value as a means to secure opportunities within the Republic of Cuba.
In 2016, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury granted a license(s) to Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide to manage properties owned by Republic of Cuba government-operated entities located in the city of Havana, Republic of Cuba.
The properties are Gran Caribe-owned Hotel Inglaterra; Habaguanex-owned Hotel Santa Isabel and Hotel Quinta Avenida (re-branded as Four Points by Sheraton Havana on 27 June 2016). The Hotel Quinta Avenida is owned by Republic of Cuba government-operated Gaviota SA, under the auspice of Grupo de Administración Empresarial (GAESA), which is controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of the Republic of Cuba (FAR).
Marriott International (Directly & Indirectly) Enters The Marketplace
Bethesda, Maryland-based Marriott International which owns nineteen brands (including Chevy Chase, Maryland-based Ritz-Carlton) is acquiring Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and confirms its discussions with Republic of Cuba government-operated companies to identify property-management opportunities within the Republic of Cuba.
