Just how do you get rid of a floor? | | 
| | | The PM, The Riu & Sangster Airport
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21 MAY 2008: Things are getting nasty on Jamaica’s north shore. Prime Minister Bruce Golding has ordered Riu Hotels to halt construction on its 65 acre, 701-room Riu Montego Bay, citing a breach of building regulations. The hotel is/was scheduled to open August 29. The order claims that Riu had breached the law by constructing an unapproved fourth floor, which violated the three-floor building permit originally issued by the Parish Council of St. James, and it calls for Riu to demolish the fourth floors on several buildings.
The three-story limit has long been in place in certain areas of Montego Bay, because several hotels are close to Sangster Airport and fall within the flight path of aircraft landings and takeoffs. Any building above three stories is deemed an impediment to safe airport operations.
The resort said it had launched internal investigations into allegations of involvement in corrupt or illegal acts raised, apparently, in connection with the mysterious appearance of a new unapproved building plan in Spanish being used to build three four-storey buildings, against the three storeys on the legitimate plan dated June 29, 2007.
Commenting on reports by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that nine out of 10 hotel buildings had breached the building and environmental permit, RIU admitted that three buildings had four storeys, insisted they were within the maximum height permitted by the CAA.
Riu said only the main building is "in excess of the height permitted by the CAA (and it) is less than 0.50 metres (20 inches) above the maximum mean sea level height permitted".
"This was as a result of an error in determining where the mean sea level height was to be calculated from," RIU claimed.
Responding to charges that it was not only putting in unapproved fourth-floor buildings but had added a fifth floor disguised as a basement, RIU said there was "absolutely no truth to the allegation".
When asked about the fifth floor, which sources close to the hotel insist was being built behind "bermed up earth to conceal it until it was too late", mayor of Montego Bay, Charles Sinclair, declined to comment until he had seen the technical reports due this week.
RIU's weekend statement described as "false", suggestions that its buildings pose "a constant threat" to air traffic, contending that they were only in the take-off path and not the landing path as well.
"...It should also be noted that the CAA's calculation of the maximum permitted height was based on an extended runway which is not yet built and the largest airplane which is not yet flying to Jamaica, so the hotel cannot at the present time pose a threat to air traffic," it said.
However, the extension of the runaway at the Sangster International Airport is apparently imminent and the height restrictions were put in for the protection for both existing and future air traffic.
Riu is conducting an investigation and has also promised to cooperate fully with Jamaican authorities in their investigation.
Then there was the noise …
The problems had begun prior to the stop order, when several neighbouring hotels along the crowded north coast corridor near the airport had complained of noise and disruption from the Riu construction site.
“The construction was noisy,” said Adam Stewart, CEO of Sandals Resorts International, whose Sandals Royal Caribbean is located next door.
“Actual construction was supposed take place from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, but many times the jackhammers were going from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. every day.”
Stewart said that Sandals already had paid out more than $1 million to guests who had complained of the noise.
Despite hoteliers’ complaints to Riu, construction work continued at all hours until the government issued its stop order. “This is an issue between the government and Riu,” Stewart said.
“We welcome competition. We welcome investment in Jamaica,” Stewart said. “But the laws cannot be flouted or the building regulations breached. The law is the law.”
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