The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The demolition of dilapidated downtown buildings is done through a “fair process”, says the Downtown Nassau Partnership (DNP).

Charles Klonaris, the DNP’s co-chair, said the group stands behind the Ministry of Tourism, Investments and Aviation with the push to demolish dilapidated and abandoned buildings in the Downtown area.

He said: “If you’ve got a derelict building and it’s just sitting there and doing nothing we had to do something about it. Then we looked if whether or not the property taxes have been paid and then we ask for the property tax to be paid, then we also get a notice for them to refurbish the building. So the process is a fair one and its not just going in and tearing down a building. There’s process and it’s a fair process that we have because we looked at the real property tax and we give notice about the balances behind property tax. They give notice about trying to refurbish it and bring it into a reasonable functional position. We do this before it’s determined to tear down the building.”

Chester Cooper, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Tourism, Investment and Aviation, told reporters earlier this month six dilapidated buildings have been torn down this year alone in Downtown with more scheduled to be demolished next year.

This move aims to be a fix for the problems that have plagued the downtown area for the past decade, with the eastern portion past Elizabeth Avenue looking like a veritable ghost town with empty buildings in a poor and unkempt state.

Mr Klonaris added: “Everyone is in compliance. All of the downtown merchants are in agreement to what we’re doing and this is an important process for the revitalisation of the city, so remember there is a process, we don’t go down and right away tear down buildings ourselves.”

He also said the new cruise port is pushing this revitalisation. “It is like a new a new city Downtown when the cruise ships docked there. That has become an important addition for the revitalisation of the city. Very important. You can see at one time you’ve got 20,000 tourists downtown on Bay Street, it’s incredible and we still have a long way to go. But it has brought in a lot of confidence to a lot of retailers and they are much happier than before.

“So we’re hoping that 2023 if it continues this way with the additional cruise ships, and the completion of the port, it’s a very important addition to the revitalisation of the city.”

Whether or not the Downtown area will see the glory days of the late 1970s to late 1980s remains to be seen, but whatever happens the cruise port will have a pivotal role in the development. In addition, will be the completion of the US Embassy on the northern side of East Street just above Shirley Street, which will attract hundreds of people on a daily basis, bringing more business foot traffic to the Downtown area. “They are going to employ a large amount of high income employees, plus Downtown would have benefitted from the construction of the embassy,” Mr Klonaris said. “Then you’ve also got the construction of the central bank that’s also going to add a lot to the city of Nassau.”