Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Canadian Company Lands Major Resort Deal In Cuba

Associated Press

Amid the furor over U.S. efforts to curb investment in Cuba, Wilton Properties Ltd. confirmed Friday it has signed a $400 million deal to build 11 resort hotels in the Communist-ruled island.

The deal, signed in Havana this week, is one of the largest foreign investments ever in Cuba’s tourism industry, which Fidel Castro’s government hopes to expand significantly.

The deal calls for Cuba’s state-run hotel company and Vancouver-based Wilton Properties to split the cost of the 10-year program to develop the hotels, two golf courses and other attractions in and around Havana.

The hotels will offer a total of 4,200 rooms, said Walter Berukoff, owner of Wilton Properties.

The deal comes as Canada plays a lead role in international opposition to U.S. legislation, adopted earlier this year, that threatens to punish companies doing business with Cuba.

The law allows Americans to sue in U.S. courts companies that trade or otherwise “benefit from” property seized from U.S. citizens after Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution. It can also block U.S. visas for company executives and their family members.

U.S. allies have sharply criticized the law, known as the Helms-Burton Act, as seeking to extend American authority to other countries.

Berukoff, who also heads a mining company that is active in Cuba, said in a telephone interview that Helms-Burton shouldn’t affect the development project.

“We’ve been very careful not to deal in expropriated U.S. properties,” he said. “We have no desire to upset the Americans.”

Though Berukoff’s mining firm, Miramar Mining Corp., has developed copper and gold mining sites in Cuba over the past three years, the hotel project will be Wilton Properties’ first development there.

“The Cubans are very excited and so are we,” Berukoff said.

About 120,000 Canadian tourists visit Cuba each year, the largest number from any nation. Dozens of Canadian firms are active in Cuba, and their government has encouraged them to remain despite the Helms-Burton Act.