The latest commercial building on the South Coast of Barbados, which is now under construction, has come under fire from the Barbados National Trust.
The construction of Lewis Tower has brought the demolition of a 20th century house which was restored 15 years ago.
In a press release dated May 20th the Barbados National Trust expressed its dismay and considerable regret following the recent demolition of Carmen which housed Lewis Drug Mart and once graced the Barbados landscape.
According to the National Trust Carmen (Lewis Drug Mart), formerly located in Rockley, was a splendid example of early twentieth century Barbadian vernacular. It had been lovingly restored some fifteen years ago and was in top shape.
Moreover the press releases states, “It was a structure of character, one of the Barbadian survivors on a strip of road now undergoing a rapid conversion to some faux approximation of a Greater Miami streetscape. The bill board depicting its proposed replacement shows a rectangular, box like structure which can be found anywhere, any place.”
The Trust further contends that the new building is a total lack of architectural credibility does nothing to justify the demolition of Carmen and more importantly nothing to contribute to our national identity and national pride.
In February 2010, developers of the Lewis Tower said, “The Lewis Tower will feature three floors of commercial space which will be leased by the floor and not as usually done by specific office spaces.”
Heather Lewis of Lewis Drug Mart leads development of the property and explained that the commercial floor space will be available for five year lease.
The Tower will house Lewis Drug Mart on the ground floor. Meanwhile the new facility will bring a bigger commercial space to Lewis Drug Mart, which in turn will bring more varied stock and a larger shopping space for clients. The family owned business will have similar offerings to the US largest drugstore chain.
The floor space available for lease starts on the first floor which has 2,212 square feet, while the second floor offering is 2,774 square feet and 2,539 square feet for the third floor which includes a balcony area.
In February 2010, Heather Lewis explained to Bimre that one of the main reasons for putting plans for the Lewis Tower into action is that the current property has needed constant repairs and developing a new property would eliminate that constant need.
The Lewis Tower should be a major complement to the development that is already taking place on the south coast. Lanterns Shopping centre which is just a few feet away is set to bring significant retail space to the area later in 2010.
The area set for over a billion dollars in development in St. Lucy has won favored from residents of the surrounding area, but they expressed some measure of apprehension as well.
Stretching over 180 acres of land in the North of Barbados, local reports have indicated that residents are all for the new development, which announced by Prime Minister David Thompson on May 18th 2010, despite some residents noting some measure of apprehension.
Although the new venture, which will comprise a massive housing development with construction of 1 161 residential units, a 200-unit hotel, private day-care, a primary school, recreational amenities, doctors’ offices, a health clinic, barber shops, a cinema and more seems like a dream come true, residents are still wary about the project.
Residents have expressed favour over the activity that the new development is likely to bring. The area has been described as too quiet and it would also bring more housing options to families in Barbados.
According to Prime Minister David Thompson in his statement in Parliament on the development “The intention of the developers is to offer housing solutions in the vicinity of 1,161 wide-ranging residential units, a 200 unit hotel, a private day-care facility, a 350 student primary school, recreational amenities, heritage parks with supporting educational facilities, several parks and open spaces, greens, lakes, tree line boulevards, pedestrian walks and an open air amphi-theatre, a bus terminal, and a sewerage treatment plant.”
“Some of the services and amenities will include doctors offices, a health clinic, a pharmacist, professional offices, beauty and barber shop, supermarket, outdoor market, various convenience stores and a cinema.”
The Prime Minister said there would also be a light industrial facility occupying 75,000 square feet of land and that the proposal included an agricultural component where 20 acres “will be utilised for intensive agriculture”.
“Central to the development are the green themed ambience, aesthetics and the creation of a holistic community, which will provide a safe comfortable and neighbourly environment where people can live, play, shop, commute and educate their children. The community design will allow easy access to the facilities and amenities as these will be located within a five minute walking distance from the residences, thus integrating the town centre and pickering development,” he stated.
As the real estate market recovers, the mixed-use resort model provides the developer with a useful combination of investment risk to mitigate the region’s challenges, and there are many successful examples in the Caribbean. With a few updates and modifications, the model still represents a sound way forward.
This is the opinion of Robert MacLellan, Managing Drector of MacLellan&Associates, the largest Caribbean-based hospitality consultancy.
According to MacLellan who speaks in an interview following the Caribbean largest tourism-based conference, “as the real estate market recovers, the mixed-use resort model provides the developer with a useful combination of investment risk to mitigate the region’s challenges, and there are many successful examples in the Caribbean. With a few updates and modifications, the model still represents a sound way forward.”
In some circles, there is still denial that the industry was already experiencing strategic difficulties, prior to the recent world recession, and there are still very few signs of urgency in the public and private sectors coming together to progress key issues.
In explaining his view, MacLellan said: “At the conference we heard again from some island governments their desire for new large-scale conventional hotels, as opposed to condo or villa resorts, and we heard from certain banks their doubts about funding mixed-use resorts. Here is the reality. Only governments have built large new hotels in the Eastern Caribbean in recent years, and the new Spanish chain hotels in Jamaica are currently achieving low average room rates, which might imply a twenty-year return on investment for these large scale assets, while they negatively impact Jamaica’s home-grown hotel groups. Savvy private equity is extremely cautious about investing in the ultimate ‘fixed asset’ – a large new-build conventional hotel on an island, totally dependent on good airlift, and with a highly seasonal tourism market.”
The risks for such an investment in the Caribbean are multi-faceted in MacLellan’s opinion. He views the current situation as “a perfect storm” – depressed room rates, high on-island costs, a fragile airline industry, an inability in some islands to achieve world-class standards of guest service, and increasing competition in an ever-shrinking world from destinations with fresher and more focused product. However, he felt that the “elephant in the room” at this year’s investment conference was again the cruise line industry and the brutal competition it represents for existing hotels and new investment.
MacLellan observed that government investment incentives for hotels on most islands are about half as generous as those in Costa Rica and Colombia, while island build costs for 4/5 star hotels are very high – up to US$500,000 per room. He said: “The hotel industry is the major tax contributor on virtually every island in the region and, while I fully understand the financial pressures on most governments today, some of that tax burden could be shifted to the cruise ships and would benefit genuine long-term resort investors on-island. For the foreseeable future, there is no replacement for the Caribbean archipelago for winter cruise itineraries – that is, a range of alternative ports, offering sufficient attractions, with spare handling capacity and within cruising range of the lines’ principal feeder markets. The cruise lines can afford to pay more and, with tough negotiations, they will pay more.”
Returning to the subject of best way forward for on-island resort investment, MacLellan observed that there had been some high-profile Caribbean projects in the last few years, where the mixed-use resort model had failed. In these cases, this was primarily due to some combination of overly-ambitious product pricing, unrealistic financing structures, ineffective project management, overly-greedy hotel operator fees, and a lack of regional knowledge. With the right level of government understanding and support, he forecasts that mixed-use resorts – providing value-for-money vacation homes to a world-wide market and offering a modest return on investment from rentals and subsequent capital gains – would still form a vital component in future Caribbean resort room inventory.
The latest commercial building on the South Coast of Barbados, which is now under construction, has come under fire from the Barbados National Trust.