According to officials at the establishment, these new units have come as a result of a conversion of some buildings that were once used by their foreign management staff, but have now been transferred as part of the Residences.

Owner of the Marriott property, Mr. Vic De Zen was recently joined by Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas and the Parliamentary Representative for the Frigate Bay area, Dr. Asim Martin, in a simple but important ceremony to formalize the conversion of the former staff units, into the new facilities.

A government release quoted a Marriott spokesman as saying that the decrease in expatriate staff has come as a result of the successful training of Kittitians and Nevisians in the tourism industry. Some of these have now taken up management positions that were previously held by expatriate staff members.

As a consequence, some of the buildings were being underutilized, thus leading to the decision to have them converted.

The 86 units that were part of the four buildings in question, said a spokesman, will now become the original Marriott Residences but plans are already in place to construct 3 more towers that would provide an additional 210 units.

The ribbon cutting ceremony was jointly undertaken by Mr. De Zen, Prime Minister Douglas and MP Dr. Martin.