ISSA NICHOLAS

 

FROM PAPER BAGS TO CROWNE JEWEL

 

HOTELIER ISSA NICHOLAS JUST CAN'T STOP MOVING…INTO EVER LARGER INVESTMENTS.

 

By Nicole Duke-Westfield

Newsdesk Editor

Business Guardian

September 7, 2000

Page 1

 

He may now be known as one of the country's top hoteliers, but Issa Nicholas' first foray into the hotel and tourism business in Trinidad and Tobago as a bust.

 

It was in 1965 and he had invested in a plan to build a hotel at Damian bay, one of the smaller more secluded bays just north of Maracas beach.  This as long before there was any Tidco, any Tourism Master Plan or any Maracas Bay Development Plan.

 

He was one of a group of entrepreneurs and professionals, which was chaired by Sir Hugh Wooding, the late Chief Justice.

 

The group was later told the only way a hotel could be successful in that area is if it were one of several hotels in that area and the bay was developed on that basis.

 

He tried again in 1977, becoming one of the first directors of the board of the Chacacabana hotel in Chaguaramas.  Nicholas later sold his interest in the beach hotel, now known as The Cove.

 

Like any businessman Nicholas does not dwell very much on these bad eggs, preferring instead to focus on the golden ones he has nurtured over the years.

 

Still, he's not sorry he took those early chances, admitting that they prepared him well for the ventures he's taken today.

 

"I like challenges and adventures.  That is why I got into the hotel business.  It is a challenge and I think it is good business," he said in an interview.

 

Sitting at the Olympia Bar of the Crowne Plaza, Nicholas spoke just a few hours before he boarded a flight for Grenada, where he owns one of that island's finest hotels, Grenada Grand Beach Resort.  It was last Saturday, the morning after he had clinked glasses with Prime Minister Basdeo Panday and other guests (including Miss Universe Lara Dutta) who were celebrating the commissioning of his newly renamed hotel, Crowne plaza, formerly the Holiday Inn, on Wrightson Road, Port of Spain which has 200 rooms.  The renovation cost $38 million.

 

You cannot miss Issa Nicholas' Syrian accent, though, after more than 40 years here, it has blended with Trinidadian twang and dialect into an interesting, almost lyrical, cocktail.

 

To look at him, his thick black eyebrows, still black though the hair on his head has turned grey, and broad smile, or to hear his booming voice, one might be tempted to think of the Mexican-born, Hollywood legend Anthony Quinn.

 

Hard to believe that he came to Trinidad and Tobago 46 years ago, in 1954, from the town of Tartus in Syria which is just north of Lebanon.  He was just 20 then.

 

Armed with a degree in engineering, which he received from the American University in Beirut, Nicholas began his first business in 1961.  it was a paper bag factory, Issa Nicholas Trinidad Limited, on the Churchill Roosevelt Highway.

 

He is very guarded when questions of his family come up.  He does offer that he is the father of four - three boys, one girl - all of whom have been educated abroad.  At least two of his sons work with him in his company, the Issa Nicholas Group of Companies.  His daughter Renee, just completed a university degree in the United States.

 

All his children were in the country to witness their father's latest accomplishment.

 

Nicholas is more loquacious when questions of his businesses and expansion plans come up.

 

"Ask me anything I will tell you," he booms offhandedly.

 

He was one of the major shareholders of Valpark Shopping Plaza in 1969 and was chairman of the board for almost 10 years, taking it from a private to a public company on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange.  The company is now owned by HCL (a subsidiary of Lawrence Duprey's CL Financial).

 

Not content to remain in manufacturing, Nicholas diversified his interests by purchasing real estate in Port of Spain.  In 1968, he bought a commercial property at the corner of Duke and Frederick Streets.  He also bought what is now called Nicholas Court, headquarters of the Customs and Excise Division, which is located at the corner of Abercromby and Independence Square.  He also owns the building, which houses the Stock Exchange next door to the Crowne Plaza.

 

In 1971 he moved into land development, with West Park Villas.  He is now building 30 apartments on the high-priced slopes at Goodwood Park.

 

But his real passion remains the hotel business.

 

"I knew this was a good industry and so I would not let the past experiences prevent me from trying it again."

 

And that is why he bought out the 65 percent foreign interest in Holiday Inn in 1986.  Nicholas also owns the Grenada hotel, located on the world famous Grand Anse beach, and the Grand Barbados Beach Resort, which he described as two very picturesque resorts.

 

Nicholas plans to turn his Grenada and Barbados resorts into Crowne Plaza jewels as well, but the financial exposure, for him, would be far greater than that of Crowne Plaza (Trinidad).  So that might take a while.

 

"In Grenada, it is 20 acres of sprawling land and so the investment there alone would be more than I spent here to bring that hotel in line with the standards and requirements of the Crowne Plaza chain," he said.

 

Right now, Nicholas is still upgrading the Wrightson Road hotel, adding a gazebo and conference facilities near the pool.  He is proud that the hotel never once closed while it was under renovation for just over one year.

 

He would also like to expand the hotel's car park facilities, which have now become inadequate, and is eying the Government-owned property next to the hotel.

 

But Government officials have been cool to this prospect.

 

He is not daunted by any of the obstacles he encounters, and is still planning an 80-room expansion, at an estimated cost of $50 million, for Crowne Plaza (Trinidad) now that it has a new name and new image.

 

Simultaneously with this rebirth of the old Holiday Inn, Nicholas is planning a 21-floor corporate structure at the corner of Abercromby Street and Independence Square, across the Brian Lara Promenade from the recently renovated Customs building.  So far he and everyone else around him is calling it "Nicholas Tower" but the entrepreneur is not averse to naming the building after whichever company or organisation that may want to rent the largest amount of office space.

 

Nicholas bought the building in September 1998.  Last year the Union Club, which had occupied the space for almost 110 years, moved out, along with other tenants, Money Managers Stockbrokers Limited and American Airlines.

 

The sight of the old building being torn down created a stir in Port of Spain.  Work has not begun as yet but he promises its replacement will be spectacular.

 

On the heels of a $38 million investment I hotel renovation, and thinking of changing the Barbados and Grenada hotels too - might he be spreading himself too thin with the construction of the new commercial building?

 

"They are all viable investments and my businesses are doing well.  I have been very fortunate that the banks support me in my investments."  That was all he would say in response.

 

Managing from one project to the next, does Issa Nicholas ever come up for air?  By his own account, not really.  At 65, he has no plans to retire.  "The only way to keep young is to keep going, he laughed, rising from the chair to leave for the airport.

 

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