China Harbour Engineering (T&T) Ltd has signed a US$30 million contact for the construction of the long in works Movie Towne Guyana complex at Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara.
The Chinese firm, which is currently signed on as the contractor for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport expansion project, announced in a release yesterday that it signed the contract in Port of Spain, Trinidad with Derek Chin, Chairman of Multi-Cinema Guyana Incorpo-rated.
The agreement includes the construction of entertainment facilities, restaurants and commercial space and has a completion timeline of 18 months.
Preparatory work on the site had started in April of last year, with BK International hired to drive the piles. Chin had later told Stabroek News that the pile driving for the 60,000-square foot complex was behind schedule in part because of the weather. He had stated that while the work has been delayed he was optimistic that by late 2015 Movie Towne would be fully operational.
Chin had also stated that the total cost of the project could go as high as US$35 million because the initial size had increased by 20,000 square feet to accommodate six cinemas.
On its completion, the complex will be the first Movie Towne franchise outside of Trinidad and Tobago. It is to comprise eight multiplex cinemas coupled with 30 local, regional and international stores, a bank, a dining area and a parking space for over 700 vehicles. The project was unveiled in 2011.
According to the CHEC release, the company has more than 30 years of experience and specialises in “areas of marine engineering, dredging, land reclamation, and in the construction of roads, bridges, airports and railways.”
However, it has been no stranger to controversy over a number of projects in the Caribbean. As recent as June, several Jamaican contactors wrote the Contractor General Dirk Harrison of the National Works Agency, saying CHEC owed them approximately $2.7 million.
