Hotel to pay $m to Airport Authority in unpaid rent

THE AIRPORTS Authority stands to receive millions in unpaid rent on land leased for a hotel in Piarco.

In an oral decision on Tuesday, Justice Frank Seepersad ordered Bel Air Investments Ltd to pay the basic prime lending rate of interest on a judgment sum of $2.5 million, which represented unpaid rent from October 2011
to December 2016.

In his decision, Seepersad agreed the Airports Authority should not be deprived of the conditions of the lease arrangement, which he said, were pellucid on what was prime real estate.

The interest owed will accumulate until the debt is repaid or until the court makes a further order.

Bel Air Investments did not defend the claim and a default judgment was granted in favour of the authority.

Seepersad had to determine if the statutory rate of interest or the base prime lending rate should be ordered.

The authority’s attorney, Nigel Graves, said the authority would have suffered up until the point it realised rent was not being paid. He explained that it was a long-term lease arrangement and in 2016, the authority enforced a right of entry and took back possession of the land.

In its claim, the authority agreed to lease 57,258 hectares of land to Bel Air Investments for the construction and operation of a hotel with conference, restaurant and entertainment facilities in 2002. The lease was for 50 years.

The company, in breach of the lease, failed to complete the construction of the hotel and take up occupation and operation on the leased lands, and the authority commenced forfeiture proceedings, enforcing its right of re-entry and possession.