Aitken Spence to open Browns Beach this year

24 August 2015 02:42 am

Aitken Spence Group’s Browns Beach Hotels PLC will be commencing operations of its Negombo resort during the financial year 2015/16, Group Chairman Harry Jayawardene said in his annual review.

The long standing plan for the company was that it would rebrand the hotel to Heritance Negombo to bring the 143-room luxury property within the portfolio of the successful Heritance brands of Aitken Spence.

The Browns Beach Hotel was started in 1970, and Jayawardene had earlier said that renovating or upgrading the hotel to match future tourism trends would not be cost-effective.

Therefore, the old hotel was demolished, and the new resort construction was started with an initial capital injection of Rs.2.1 billion through a rights issue in 2010.

Jayawardene controls 90.91 percent of Browns Beach Hotels through various subsidiaries.