Uruguay's Ministry of Tourism has publicly confirmed for the first time that a private business group submitted a proposal for the Hotel Casino Carmelo, which is linked to a casino license and is currently under review by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Cristian Pos, national director of Tourism, said in an interview that the proposal contains specific conditions, which is why it was referred to the Economy Ministry, where the Casino Directorate must issue a ruling. Once that official response is issued, the private party will determine whether the terms are commercially viable.
Pos confirmed that a second path is already prepared. Should the private proposal fail to advance, the Ministry of Tourism has a complete tender document for the sale of the property without conditions. Under that scenario, the buyer would acquire the site without prior obligations regarding its intended use, tourism function or the fate of the existing structure.
While the government has now confirmed the existence of the proposal, details including the identity of the bidder, the size of the investment, the intended use of the property and any conditions attached to the project remain undisclosed.
The Ministry's own assessment is that the building has been abandoned for between five and six years. The property had previously been the subject of institutional discussions with multiple public bodies, none of which produced a viable outcome.
The next step now depends on the Economy Ministry's determination on the casino license component. That ruling will define whether the private party maintains its interest, or whether the Tourism Ministry proceeds to market the asset through an open and unconditional sale process.
Since April, the Ministry of Tourism held talks with Uruguay's Universidad de la República, the Universidad Tecnológica, the UTU vocational training body, the Carmelo municipality and the Colonia departmental government to explore institutional alternatives for the building; none of those options advanced
