Develop a city campus and hotel.
This is the latest development proposal that has been put forward for Bridgetown.
Sir Hilary Beckles Principal and Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, gave this announcement at the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry Anniversary Launch on June 2nd, 2010 at the historic George Washington House.
Looking at possible development for the University, Sir Hilary said, “From the perspective of University one of things we are looking at is acquiring a property in Bridgetown to develop a city campus. We are looking to see if we can acquire a premise to begin teaching. A city ought to have campus.”
He told the BCCI gathering, that developing a city campus will also have other spillover effects. He said, “a city campus of Cave Hill to develop our programs in the city and bring life to the city. You can very well imagine if we can succeed in securing a property and we have between 3000 – 6000 young people in the city between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m, you could imagine the life Cave Hill would be able to bring to the city as a teaching institution in the middle of Bridgetown. We are looking at this very seriously because of all the constraints we are facing where we are.”
The long-time historian argued the fact that Cave Hill has 6000 people rushing out of Bridgetown every evening, with a city Campus they would be able to stay where they are and the teaching staff deliver programs to them onsite. It would bring tremendous value to the car park industry, restaurant, food industry just to life all together.
The well-known academic explained that they would like to work with the Chamber on developing their strategy for the City. The Chamber of Commerce has been working assiduously on a revitalization project for Bridgetown.
On the issue of a major city hotel, the Campus official strongly argued that such development should become a priority for all stakeholders and Bridgetown maybe the only City in the West Indies without a major hotel. Sir Hilary stated, “We are probably the only City in the West Indies without a major hotel. It is peculiar we do not have a major hotel in the city. If the treasury building was such a property. I know there have been efforts in the past to conceptualise such a property a failed attempt in the 1907’s and I believe we need to push that very very aggressively.”
The lauded academic also explained that Barbadians need to change their perspective on city living. He noted, “We need to change our perspective on the city…, what city life ought to be. As Barbadians not I am not sure if we have grasped the full parameters of city living… I know some interesting efforts have been made to make it a social space and to blend that social living with tradition. But I believe there is a lot more we can do.”
