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Coen Heatbrink

General Manager of AC Hotel Kingston (AC Hotels by Marriott) and hospitality veteran with 27+ years opening hotels across the Caribbean

Aug 4, 2026

12:39
Am I surveying the properties around me and getting information from there? What am I doing to get this started?
12:44
I think you need to understand what you're buying, right? So I think first of all, and this is a big, always have a risk when you buy something that has existed and maybe has been out of operation.
12:54
You want to have a structural engineer assess it.
12:56
You want to make sure that you do not buy something because you're coming in with an investment.
13:01
And there's many situations where an investor would buy a property or take over an existing property that has been closed or what had a budget to reopen, but then ran into, OK, termites or run into, oh, we have to replace all the plumbing or, OK, all the electricity is this or the new standards for fire life safety have changed.
13:19
We need to do this.
13:20
So you really want to understand what comes with this building and what is now required for you to be able to operate that as a hotel, right? And I think those are critical factors because if you are struggling with budget and it's tight, you have to have an unforeseen, you're going to end up in trouble.

25 MINS LATER

38:44
But what is your thought on that?

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