Building to begin on $8.8 billion Mecca hotel project

The developer of a long-delayed $8.8 billion (Dh32 bn) project in the heart of Mecca has signed a deal to start construction on a large portion of the development.
Saudi Arabia's Jabal Omar Development said it awarded a 3.4 bn riyal ($908 million) contract to Nesma & Partners Construction for the first phase of the project, located on 23 hectares neighboring the Grand Mosque. Nesma was given a 24-month contract to start on a section of the project overlooking Ibrahim al Khalil Street, according to a statement Jabal Omar issued to the Saudi Arabia bourse yesterday.
Plans for the development call for at least three luxury hotels, hundreds of shops and air conditioned prayer facilities for 100,000 worshippers, as well as housing for 87,000 people.

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Luxury hotel for gay tourism to open in Mexican Caribbean region

Cancun –  A luxury hotel catering exclusively to the male gay tourist trade will open next month near the Tulum archaeological zone on Mexico's Riviera Maya, the facility's general director told Efe on Tuesday.
"The hotel is uniquely for men. That is to say, only homosexual couples are accepted, it's not for women, although among our personnel we have heterosexual men and women and all have received specialized training to avoid having our guests feel uncomfortable or discriminated against," Patrick Lurenz said.
He said that another prohibition will be on men entering the hotel with minors.
Lurenz said that the Adonis Tulum hotel, the first establishment of its kind in the state of Quintana Roo, is now in the last phase of remodeling prior to opening its doors to guests in January.

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A Hotel Mogul Gets a Reprieve

Kentucky hotelier Bill Yung III has found a solution to one of his debt problems just weeks after relinquishing control of 14 hotels to a lender, Blackstone Group LP.
Mr. Yung's Columbia Sussex Corp. has lined up loans from Barry Sternlicht's Starwood Capital Group totaling $206 million to replace debt that came due last July, the companies announced Tuesday. The deal means that 10 hotels pledged as collateral for those loans will remain with Columbia Sussex for another several years.
The loans from Starwood Capital include $192 million in a mortgage and mezzanine loan at an 8% interest rate. Those loans, maturing in January 2016, are tied to eight hotels. In addition, a $14 million, one-year bridge loan averaging a 12% interest rate is tied to two hotels.

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Hard Rock Hotel guest files suit alleging assault, defamation

A Las Vegas Hard Rock hotel-casino guest is suing the property, charging assault, defamation and false imprisonment over an Oct. 12 incident.
Las Vegas attorney Sigal Chattah said Monday the suit was filed in Clark County District Court in behalf of Ryan Maurer.
The suit says Maurer, a tourist from Minnesota, was awoken at 4 a.m. by hotel security and was detained over mistaken allegations of a domestic disturbance in the room. Maurer says there was no disturbance since he was alone in the room. Maurer says Metro Police later advised him he was being evicted for "failure to comply" and that he was arrested for trespassing.

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Hotel for the dead opens in Tokyo

TOKYO, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- A Tokyo non-profit has opened a storage facility for corpses awaiting funerals. It's billed as a "business hotel for the dead."
The LISS Center Shin-Kiba facility, which is run by funeral-arranging non-profit LISS System, can store up to 37 bodies in rooms with antibacterial lights, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Monday.
The rooms cost $88 per night and the center also offers assistance with arranging for morticians and setting up funerals.

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