Gov’t allocates $50M to El Conquistador Resort Hotel project
The Puerto Rico Housing Department announced the allocation of $50 million of CDBG-DR recovery funds for the development of the El Conquistador Resort Hotel project as part of the Economic Development Investment Portfolio Program (IPG), which seeks to create employment opportunities and strengthen the island’s economy.
The project, with an estimated total cost of $263 million, consists of the renovation of rooms, restaurants and other areas of the hotel’s structure located in the municipality of Fajardo.
“Under the program, funds are set aside for the first of the large private investment projects that will receive financing from the government of Puerto Rico for large-scale commercial and industrial development,” said Gov. Pedro Pierluisi.
“This will be achieved through a significant loan that will help drive the transformation of the local economy,” said Pierluisi.
Under IPG, Housing provides partially forgivable loans of between $10 million and $50 million for large-scale projects, which will lead to economic growth and job creation for Puerto Ricans, especially those with low or moderate incomes.
“As the agency in charge of managing the program, Housing has sought to identify high-impact projects that create good-paying jobs and this is the first of several projects that will likely have an economic injection of CDBG-DR funds for that purpose,” said the Housing Secretary William Rodríguez.
After Housing opened a request for proposals period in August 2021, the government created an evaluation committee to determine projects based on eligibility criteria, including the creation or retention of more than 300 jobs and the creation of economic activities that generate more than 50% of their income through exports.
The committee is composed of the Housing Secretary, the executive director of the Office of Budget Management, the secretary of the Department of Economic Development and Commerce, the Governor’s Under Secretary for State Affairs, and the executive director of the Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority (AAFAF, in Spanish).
IPG has a budget of $800 million according to Puerto Rico’s CDBG-DR Action Plan and over the next few months Housing intends to announce more projects of great economic impact supported by the financing provided by the program.
