In 2022, there was con­cern when the bpTT staff com­plex in Ma­yaro was list­ed for sale. Many from the com­mu­ni­ty feared the build­ing, which had con­tributed to many cher­ished mem­o­ries in the area, would be lost to them.

Two years lat­er, the TC In­ter­na­tion­al Group of Com­pa­nies bought the prop­er­ty but are keep­ing its essence in­tact while mod­ernising it as the C-Bryz Re­sort.

“The old BP staff com­plex came on the mar­ket, avail­able for sale, and we took a look at it and see­ing the need for re­sort-type fa­cil­i­ties in Trinidad, we saw an op­por­tu­ni­ty be­ing on the beach­front in Ma­yaro where we could re­ha­bil­i­tate this site and do a re­sort on East coast,” said George Laquis II, the Group CEO of TC In­ter­na­tion­al Group of Com­pa­nies

“We ac­quired the prop­er­ty, and we’ve em­barked on a com­plete re­fur­bish­ment of the prop­er­ty to con­vert it in­to a re­sort,” he told Sun­day Busi­ness Guardian in an in­ter­view at the com­pa­ny’s Diego Mar­tin of­fice on Tues­day.

The com­pa­ny saw an op­por­tu­ni­ty to fill a gap in Ma­yaro by trans­form­ing C-Bryz in­to a full-ser­vice, el­e­vat­ed re­sort ex­pe­ri­ence, which is ab­sent from Trinidad’s East coast. The com­pa­ny is hope­ful this push will trans­form Ma­yaro from a ca­su­al day trip or rus­tic stay in­to a pre­mi­um, se­cure tourism des­ti­na­tion.

Laquis stopped short of stat­ing the ex­act cost of the in­vest­ment so far, but ex­plained, “It’s a part­ner­ship of three share­hold­ers, and so the ini­tial in­vest­ment was made (pur­chas­ing the com­plex), and then ob­vi­ous­ly we have bud­get­ed for the up­grades that we see for this fa­cil­i­ty. The fi­nanc­ing was se­cured, and the works have been un­der­tak­en now on a phased ba­sis. But we are work­ing for full com­ple­tion this year, prob­a­bly by De­cem­ber. If not it will be Jan­u­ary 2026,”

How­ev­er, to achieve this goal, the TCI group did not tear down the old fa­cil­i­ty but in­stead de­cid­ed to ren­o­vate and ex­pand up­on the land around the com­plex.

“It’s a nine-acre com­pound, which is mas­sive. Most of it is un­built. A lot of it is land, and it’s all beach­front. So when we saw the op­por­tu­ni­ty to get us a prop­er­ty like that, it was amaz­ing. It al­ready had a good in­fra­struc­ture in terms of the main hous­ing cen­tre with our restau­rant and 30 rooms. Then there are three, three-bed­room bun­ga­lows and a house. So the vi­sion we saw was re­vamp­ing, not re­fur­nish­ing. Do­ing it over and, to be hon­est, leav­ing most of the fa­cil­i­ty as is, but en­hanc­ing it in terms of the land­scape and the fa­cil­i­ties,” said George An­tho­ny Laquis III, the ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor of TCI.

The re­sort is be­ing up­grad­ed to in­clude mod­ern ameni­ties in­clud­ing a pool, ten­nis and pick­le­ball courts, jog­ging track, and a mix of vil­las and ho­tel rooms, all with­in a ful­ly gat­ed prop­er­ty.

“The main fa­cil­i­ty, which ac­com­mo­dates 30 rooms, is ba­si­cal­ly com­plete. It has been open for busi­ness, cater­ing to peo­ple work­ing in the en­er­gy sec­tor. But we have, we are now em­bark­ing on the sec­ond phase, which is the en­tire re­sort to cater to both peo­ple in the en­er­gy sec­tor, as well as for­eign and lo­cal tourists,” said Laquis II.

How­ev­er he ex­plained that the prop­er­ty’s con­nec­tion to Ma­yaro would not be lost as TCI has had the com­mu­ni­ty in mind through­out its de­vel­op­ment.

“We’re go­ing to be em­ploy­ing peo­ple in Ma­yaro to start with, so we’re bring­ing some em­ploy­ment ben­e­fits to the com­mu­ni­ty. Our re­sort is open to the pub­lic. Our restau­rants will be open to the pub­lic as well. And we’re go­ing to fa­cil­i­tate the peo­ple of Ma­yaro, the gen­er­al pub­lic, not just for the re­sort, but with the in­tro­duc­tion of the ten­nis court and pick­le­ball courts, it will be open for peo­ple to make book­ings and come and par­tic­i­pate and play dai­ly, And we’re go­ing to en­cour­age tour­na­ments and dif­fer­ent av­enues.”

Laquis III added, “BP was there for years, and they did a lot for the com­mu­ni­ty. So we are plan­ning to do that same thing and add to that through the com­pound and the re­sults. And every­thing we’re do­ing is re­al­ly to bring more tourism, more peo­ple to the area, em­ploy­ing more peo­ple and kind of bring­ing Ma­yaro back.”

He stressed that the de­ci­sion to push the in­vest­ment was al­so dri­ven by the for­eign ex­change chal­lenges be­ing faced and the need to ex­pand the coun­try’s tourism port­fo­lio.

“Es­pe­cial­ly with the econ­o­my and oil, it’s not what it used to be. And it’s a big part of the T&T econ­o­my. Right now, we have a need for tourism more than ever. The econ­o­my, the coun­try needs it al­so.”

“Be­cause of the forex is­sue, peo­ple can’t trav­el as much. It’s more of a chal­lenge now. So re­al­ly, part of our vi­sion and why we took the leap to make this in­vest­ment in Trinidad is be­cause the East Coast and Ma­yaro, in our opin­ion, is un­touched with a lot of po­ten­tial,” he con­tin­ued.

The TCI group al­so ac­knowl­edged the progress the Had­co group had achieved through the Mt Plaisir Es­tate Ho­tel in Grande Riv­iere, stat­ing that it too gave them the im­pe­tus to im­prove the Ma­yaro prop­er­ty.

“What we’re try­ing to do, which is es­sen­tial­ly a world-class fa­cil­i­ty, where com­pa­nies, like he said, could have cor­po­rate re­treats.

“For­eign­ers or lo­cals could take a week, take a week­end, and dri­ve a cou­ple hours. Ma­yaro is like no oth­er place you’re dri­ving for miles, co­conut trees, and long beach­es. So re­al­ly bring­ing that to Trinidad so every­one could ben­e­fit,” said Laquis III.

The restau­rant at the fa­cil­i­ty will be bol­stered by the group’s part­ner­ship with the Pe­ter George Jnr-owned Trent Restau­rant Group, which is the um­brel­la com­pa­ny of Ama­ra, Bu­zo, and Trot­ters.

The TCI said this col­lab­o­ra­tion should be a world-class food and bev­er­age ex­pe­ri­ence for guests, lo­cals, and en­er­gy sec­tor pro­fes­sion­als, and in the process would set a new din­ing bench­mark for the en­tire East coast.