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A Best Western Premier with service designed to set a Caribbean standard is scheduled to open in suburban Port au Prince in November. It will be the first U.S.-branded hotel on the island, says Rich Cortese, vice president of Aimbridge Hospitality, the Dallas-based firm that will manage the property.
The seven-story, 106-room Best Western Premier Petionville will cost its developers, The Carabimmo Group, more than $10 million to build. Designed by Dallas company Studio 11, it will be staffed by Haitians exclusively. Cortese predicts it will be "the hottest thing not only in Haiti but known throughout the Caribbean."
Mark Williams, vice president of North American development for Best Western, says the Petionvillle deal has been in the works since 2008. "We were about to lead the way to breaking ground when the earthquake hit and obviously that pushed everything back a couple of years," he says. This will be the fifth Best Western in the Caribbean and its first in Haiti. And, Williams notes, since...