WILLEMSTAD – Yesterday the Hotel Howard Johnson in Brionplein was sold at auction for the sum of 8.7 million guilders, which was 200 thousand guilders above the original asking price of 8.5 million guilders. Last October when the first auction took place, an amount of 9.5 million was requested. But because of the high asking price, no bid was placed on the hotel. After the asking price was lowered a local investor, Soemeer, bought the property.
It is the intention of the local investor who bought the property, to reopen the hotel in the first half of 2019. The person who bought the Hotel met all the required conditions.
This hotel closed its doors because at a certain time those who had bought it did not have the funds to remodel the hotel, which left the rooms in a very bad condition, as a result the hotel had to be closed. This was also due to the heavy debt that was accumulated over the years. The Hotel consists of nine plots that vary from 24 to 672 square meters, and has leases on six other plots left in Brionplein, Molenplein, Conscientiesteeg and San Martinusstraat.
The Hotel has 67 rooms and a casino. However, the casino closed due to the fact that the number of rooms was not enough for this Hotel to run the casino.
In 2017 the Hotel was declared bankrupt. The number of financial institutions and insurers that decided to sell the hotel at auction were: Banco di Caribe, Ennia, Girobank, Ontwikkelingsbank van der Netherlandse Antillen N.V. Vidanova and Apna. In these instances the Hotel had high debts. The Notary Office Moerdijk and Plam conducted the auction.
