State Trading Organisation (STO) Managing Director Abdulla Saeed has revealed that Urbanco has agreed to provide them with two plots of land in return for the STO Hulhumalé Hotel.

The hotel has remained unfinished for 12 years since the construction began.

Speaking during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company held at Hulhumalé Central Park last night, Saeed revealed that STO and Urbanco have held discussions regarding the hotel and have since come to a settlement agreement.

He noted the settlement agreement has already been signed, which states that Urbanco will provide STO with two plots of land in return for the investment STO has put into the development of the City Hotel.

Saeed further noted that as they have not signed the papers regarding the land plots, STO is yet to handover the hotel to Urbanco. He highlighted that Urbanco potentially plans to lease the hotel to a foreign party.

The partially finished hotel is located near the harbor of Hulhumale was a project won by STO who bid for it in 2007. STO began construction on the hotel, which was to be developed as per five-star standards in 2011.

After completing 55 percent of the works of the hotel via a USD 32 million loan through Thailand's Exim Bank, the project was put on a hiatus as the government informed that STO could not dabble in the hotel business in 2014.

Any efforts to sell the unfinished property by STO was unsuccessful.

The company revealed in 2019 that the unfinished project has caused several financial difficulties to the company, stressing that they had spent USD 42.9 million on the project by 2019.