HDC, in its statement, revealed that the government section of the hotel is set to be completed within four months, and the city hotel component is scheduled for completion and set to be operational within nine months.
PSM News
As of May 2025, the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the World of Business Pvt Ltd to develop and operate the City Hotel in Hulhumale’. The city hotel project, which was initially to be developed by the State Trading Organisation (STO), has remained an unfinished project since the company acquired a plot of land in Hulhumale’ Phase I in 2007. Although the initial developments started in 2012 with STO signing an agreement with the Carlson Group, the project started facing hurdles from the get-go.
In 2014, the project came to a standstill in 2014 after an order from the government, however, the completion of the project remained a possibility as HDC signed an agreement with STO to continue the developments in 2020. In the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), the Managing Director at the time, Hussain Amr, also addressed the delays, stating that the investor that STO initially sought out to complete the city hotel had fallen through, which led to STO making arrangements with HDC.
By late July 2024, during a function hosted to mark the Independece Day, the President of the Maldives, Dr Mohamed Muizzu, revealed that the Hotel building project had been taken over the state – promising that some of the floors of the building would be used as a media village at a reasonable price with set guidelines.
As of 2 May 2025, HDC issued a statement confirming that the City Hotel development would now be handed over to World of Business. The statement also confirmed that a settlement agreement was reached with STO, although the details of the settlement were not disclosed to the public.
Although the project had remained stalled for almost 14 years, HDC revealed that World of Business will be taking over with a redevelopment plan that includes:
The statement by HDC also gave a completion time, with the government section of the hotel set to be completed within four months, and the city hotel component scheduled for completion and set to be operational within nine months. If HDC, along with World of Business, can establish and make the city hotel operational within the set timeline, after 14 years of hurdles, the Hulhumale’ City Hotel project will finally be completed by 2026.
