The Irish development company set up their representative office in Havana. They had a staff of over twenty people, almost all of whom were locals with the exception of the managers, three expatriate Irishmen.
One of the main objectives Arrowsmith had set out for the representative office was to seek suitable partners that would invest and develop certain of the lots into which the Ciscap project had been divided.
The local manager, Patrick Devereux, a cosmopolitan Irishman with an old Anglo-Norman name, spoke excellent French and Spanish. He had been recruited in Quebec, where he had managed a major hotel construction project that had come to an end.
Devereux found through his friends in Quebec a potential investor, a Cuban, a wealthy expatriate Cuban who held a Canadian passport, Ivan Pavlov Garcia.
Ivan Garcia, as he preferred to be called, was one of those many Cubans with a Russian father, Igor Pavlov, who during his military service for the Red Army in Cuba had served as an interpreter. His father had been born in Tallinn, Estonia, at that time a Soviet Republic. In the good old days many Soviet citizens had married Cuban girls, but when Russia fell out of favour, most chose to leave Cuba for their old country, bringing home with them a bitter-sweet memory, leaving their wives behind.
Many baned the day they made their decision to return, the USSR had changed. Such was the case for Estonia, but on the contrary, for the good. Estonia had gained its independence with the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, and was taking advantage of its traditional cultural links with Finland with its highly developed economy, both countries sharing the same language, be it with some variations.
Igor Pavlov had returned with his family to Estonia in the mid eighties, a Soviet Republic, then struggling for its independence against the rapidly failing Soviet regime. His son Ivan quickly left Estonia for Quebec to escape conscription into the Red Army.
In Canada working with other Cubans expatriates and refugees he successfully speculated in the property market. He then invested in Miami, a home to a large Cuban population, where he accumulated handsome profits as a result the property boom, when the American economy entered a long and sustained period of prosperity that commenced shortly after the 1991 Gulf War. He then turned his interest to Guadeloupe, building condominiums for the growing number of French Canadian holidaymakers.
He maintained strong contacts with Estonia, buying choice old commercial property in the centre of Tallinn, which he renovated and let to foreign businesses setting up in the country. Thanks to his prosperity his father had been able to retire in comfort taking the nationality of the newly independent Estonian Republic.
Ivan Garcia had speculated on office buildings and other commercial property, but had not been previously been involved in hotels. After the financial aid from the Soviet Union to Cuba suddenly dried up in 1991, and the country started to open to tourism, he realised that there was a market to be tapped.
His first investment was the acquisition of a run down, once luxurious, hotel in Old Havana that his company restored to its previous grandeur. He soon realised that apart from a few luxury hotels at beach resorts, most hotels catered mainly for business travellers or were located in the business areas of the cities.
When the tourists started to arrive by the planeload, they wanted sea, sand and sun with all facilities at affordable prices. The majority could not afford the up market prices of the first class hotels; in addition the city locations were unacceptable. There were more than enough five star palaces. The new wave of tourist wanted beach locations, with sports and entertainment facilities. Garcia then set to building tourist hotels, for package holiday groups, which were soon to dominate the market.
With his experience in Cuba he was an ideal ‘build and operate’ partner for one of the Ciscap lots.
Chapter 28
Erikkson
Offshore Islands Page 27
