(Trinidad Express) Pan Trinbago’s headquarters will be constructed at the old post office site on Wrightson Road in Port of Spain, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has confirmed.
He was speaking on Saturday at the finals of Pan Trinbago’s Steelband Music Festival, at the Jean Pierre Complex in Port of Spain.
Rowley said years ago the Government had “given the steelpan movement a plot of land out in the East, just south of Trincity, for a Pan Trinbago headquarters and possibly a business site. Pan Trinbago stepped out haltingly to do that and I dare say it got not only stuck in the mud but it literally became a national eyesore.”
He added: “Not too long ago, a very distinguished Indian firm very deeply involved in cricket and wanting to get involved to support West Indies cricket and their own venture, offered to partner with the Government to create…a cricket academy as now exists in Mumbai in Maharashtra in India.
“The Government agreed to accept the proposal and the Government’s contribution to that cricket academy, which we hope will come to fruition in the not-too-distant future, was to put in the land as requested. To do so we had to talk to Pan Trinbago and to get them to agree to do an exchange where the Government will get back that piece of land in that location, get involved with the cricket academy there and do something for Pan Trinbago elsewhere,” the Prime Minister stated.
“We eventually agreed by negotiation between Pan Trinbago and various Government entities to give Pan Trinbago, in return for the property in the East, the site which is now the old post office, the abandoned old post office here in Port of Spain where the mapping section exists in that old building which has been engineeringly condemned on Wrightson Road.
“We are aiming to move the mapping section out to the East into a better location, secure and more user-friendly and fit for purpose, and on this site where Pan Trinbago will now have, the Government has agreed not to leave Pan Trinbago on a site or in ownership of an abandoned condemned building. As minister for UDeCOTT (Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago) I was able to go to the Cabinet and get Cabinet agreement. The last agreement was had a couple weeks ago or thereabouts where I can tell you that the Government and Pan Trinbago has agreed to a design for a headquarters building worthy of its location in the city of Port of Spain on Wrightson Road at the old post office site,” Rowley continued.
Commenting on the design of the structure, he said: “Very soon when you see the architect’s rendering of what that building would look like, I am guaranteeing you that you will be proud because like everything else, it would look somewhere like a pan. And in the city of Port of Spain, the only city in the world that will have a building like that, Pan Trinbago and the Government will share that building, with Pan Trinbago using its share of the building to support its financial ventures and be in a location worthy of the home where steelpan was invented.”
Pan Trinbago president Beverly Ramsey-Moore told the Express yesterday that the structure will cost approximately $100 million and feature six floors.
“The building will not only facilitate Pan Trinbago but also there are going to be spaces that are going to be shared with Government ministries and other spaces that can be rented for additional revenue streams for the organisation,” she said.
Ramsey-Moore added that the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts will be rolling out the plans for the structure and what it will be used for during this week.
