First three-star apartment complex in Jaffna

Shirajiv Sirimane in London

The first three star, apartment style, hotel complex will be built in Jaffna next year.

The Rs. 750 million project to be built by Global Towers, Colombo which also owns and operates a similar hotel with apartments and rooms in Wellawatta.

Deputy Chairman, Global Towers Management (Pvt) Ltd, Sam Samarasinghe told Sunday Observer Business at the World Tourism Market (WTM) event in London, that they have purchased a 300-perch block of land off Hospital Road and construction will be launched in January and they hope to open the hotel by end of next year. The 100-room hotel would be branded as Global Towers, Jaffna.

Samarasinghe who is a large shareholder of the Ramada Hotel in Frankfurt, said that they want to bring the concept of apartments to Jaffna.

“We observed that several businessmen, foreigners and Sri Lankans living abroad were finding it difficult to obtain long stay apartments and Global Tours in Jaffna would fill this void,” he said.

“This hotel will be the first of its kind in Jaffna where people could buy apartments and rent it back to us to manage it,” Samarasinghe said. “This concept is also available at our Wellawatte property,’’ he said.

Global Towers, Managing Director, S. Krishnadasan said that the proposed hotel would also fill the void for high class accommodation in the North.

“We also see an increase in business with the proposed highway and other major developments in Jaffna,’’ he said. General Manger, Global Towers Colombo, Tilome Nanayakkara said that they hope to start training staff early to maintain a high standard of service which is another grey area in Jaffna.

The facilities at the new hotel would include a spacious balcony, air conditioning, satellite TV swimming pool, fitness and spa centre, coffee shop, restaurant and bar, gift shop and business centre.