Flush with cash after its billion-dollar sale of real-estate properties to Developers Diversified Realty, Caribbean Property Group (CPG) should soon be adding the Normandie Hotel to what promises to be a growing hotel roster, sources close to purchase negotiations told CARIBBEAN BUSINESS. This confirms rumors that CPG had “the inside track” to buying one of the most coveted, but also historically worst managed hotel properties on the island (CB March 9, 2006).

Sources also indicated CPG will build a tower addition to its Radisson Ambassador Plaza Hotel & Casino in San Juan “in the near future.” The developer has yet to decide whether the addition will take the form of a condo-hotel or additional regular hotel rooms. What is almost certain, however, is that the tower will have a parking garage in an attempt to at least somewhat assuage Condado’s continuing parking woes.

The Normandie will likely be repositioned as a four- or five-star luxury boutique hotel and will be flagged accordingly, sources suggested, necessitating yet another remodeling effort. The Normandie’s most recent $6 million renovation, heralded by much fanfare, has been almost unanimously derided by industry observers, who contend the storied hotel has failed to live up to its potential and expectations as a result.

Although the hotel is regarded as being one of the finest examples of art deco architecture in the Caribbean, and is a national monument included in the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Interior Department’s Heritage Conservation & Recreation Service, it has been decades since the Normandie has been classified as a genuine luxury hotel. With many millions of dollars in available capital, CPG, which already knows a thing or two about luxury hotels in the guise of its Ritz-Carlton Hotel & Casino, is expected to “reposition” the Normandie to make it one of the most distinctive and most expensive hotels in Puerto Rico.

Sources indicated, however, that the Normandie will not include a casino due to the area’s ongoing parking issues and the on-again, off-again plans of the neighboring Caribe Hilton to incorporate a casino of its own.