Ogle can lift neighbouring East Coast communities as it climbs. Routinely, the Eugene F. Correia International Airport has been reporting increases in visitor arrivals at what is Guyana’s second international airport located at Ogle. Placed in the context of the broader socio-economic developments that have been unfolding here over the past almost five years, increased visitor arrivals may likely be the tip of the iceberg as far as the future of Ogle and neighbouring communities on the lower East Coast Demerara are concerned.
The US company ExxonMobil’s May 2015 first major oil discovery here and its subsequent finds, have generated an unprecedented visitor curiosity about this 83,000 square-mile South American republic that rarely, prior to that time, had attracted more than passing coverage in the international media.
Ogle’s new-found popularity can be summed up in a single word – proximity. The Eugene F. Correia Airport is situated in the quiet, often seemingly comatose community of Ogle. By car, you can get from Ogle to the capital, Georgetown, in about a quarter of an hour on most days. Guyana’s only other international airport, the Cheddi Jagan Inter-national Airport, is separated from the capital by approximately twenty five miles of sometimes testing road, which though significantly upgraded from what it used to be up to even five years ago, is often clogged with traffic and consequently often both taxing and time-consuming to traverse. On a bad day it could take as much as an hour to arrive in Georgetown from the CJIA.
For investors as much as for leisure seekers, minimum hassle in the course of their arrival in and departure from Guyana are much sought-after ‘commodities.’ This is what makes Ogle and more specifically the Eugene F. Correia Airport as strategically significant as it has become.
The implications of this circumstance for Ogle (and for neighbouring communities) are significant. No single piece of real estate anywhere in Guyana has been transformed in terms of its value to the extent that Ogle has been. What used to be Plantation Ogle, a once 890-odd acres of land on the lower East Coast Demerara, has now significantly ramped up its market value on account of what, these days, is a much more valuable commodity, oil.
A mere handful of years prior to ExxonMobil’s oil discovery, Planta-tion Ogle and the remnants of its sugar estate infrastructure that included a run-down airstrip and a handful of dilapidated buildings had been wallowing in its near eyesore status until it was revived through a mix of state and private investor interest spearheaded by the local domestic airlines industry with support from the European Community. Within a relatively short space of time what had been an eyesore was transformed into a facility that could, over time, be continually upgraded to the status of a genuine international airport.
It almost defies belief that up until some years ago, Ogle had been wallowing in its continual decline though some of the housing that has survived the sugar era still reflect the relative grandeur left behind by a sugar industry that had once enjoyed the status that it has now irretrievably lost. One such remnant was the Ogle aerodrome, an heirloom from the old days that has since assumed an alternative importance as the preferred gateway to Guyana.
The investor community has quickly worked out that Ogle offers visitor conveniences for which ‘high-rolling’ visitors to the country would be willing to pay. This is what makes the recent disclosure of a slew of intended investments in Ogle significant.
In February, the state-run National Industrial Commercial and Investments Ltd (NICIL) announced that the Marriott brand, which has already established a hotel presence in the capital would further entrench itself here through a 150-room, US$75 million facility at Ogle. A matter of a few days later it was announced that another world-renowned brand, the Hilton, was behind the planned creation of a US$100 million hotel at Ogle that would be kitted out with a golf course and solar farm. Afterwards, we learnt that Windsor Estates, a Guyanese-owned company with pre-existing property investments here, was shelling out upwards of $26 million an acre to acquire lands at Ogle for the creation of a new luxury-type Windsor Estates community to go along with an already established gated community on the East Bank Demerara.
Further real estate investments in and around Ogle backed by generous amounts of cash could see more properties change hands not just in the immediate environs of the airport but also along the strip leading, first, to the road that was once the coastal rail link between Berbice and Georgetown then further north to the East Coast Highway. Both roads lead directly into Georgetown.
Ahead of what is now likely to be investments in a new inventory of infrastructure including golf courses, restaurants, cinemas, jewellery and clothing stores and other conveniences designed to meet the requirements of big-spending visitors, there have already been two major private investments, the Giftland Mall and Movietowne Complex that includes restaurants and a giant supermarket.
As external investor interest arising both directly and indirectly from the oil & gas industry grows, Ogle, and its catchment areas are bound to experience some of the effects of the transformation. Among the earliest likely beneficiaries could be communities like Plaisance situated immediately east of Ogle. Here, there is scope for the upgrading to mini-mall status of the row of street food stalls offering mainly fish and chips and other creole foods as well as the renovation of the local municipal market to include the creation of potentially lucrative craft markets. Increased visitor interest could also trigger investments in other forms of mostly nighttime entertainment as well as in the upgrading of pre-existing facilities. Conceivably, property in Plaisance and in other neighbouring communities could also change hands in the not too distant future.
What now appears certain is that a once run-down sugar estate later revived through local private sector investments has been transformed into acres of some of the most sought-after real estate in Guyana. An added bonus is the promise that it holds for lifting neighbouring communities on the lower East Coast as it climbs.
