As plans to complete the Sunshine Hub car park advance, the government has announced that a contractor has been employed to assess the present state of the edifice.
In an interview with OBSERVER, Minister of Information, Melford Nicholas, said that the company will evaluate the mechanical, plumbing and electrical installations of the Independence Drive building to “ensure they can be used.”
He added, “Out of that will come some revised construction drawings and instructions.”
The minister said the construction management firm will then need to enlist the help of a quantity surveyor.
Last week, a perimeter fence was erected as part of the first phase of the project. It followed a site visit by some board members of the National Asset Management Company (NAMCO), which has taken over the project.
Construction on the multi-level car park facility started in 2005 under the United Progressive Party (UPP) administration.
The project halted in 2010 after the financiers, CL Financial Group collapsed and the government acquired the property in 2017 for US $6 million.
Nicholas said NAMCO has already cleaned the facility.
“I think over a period of time, the facility has been used by various members of the public and some vagrants as a place of habitation,” he said. “That, of course, became unhealthy because there are certain human waste that has been left at the facilities and it became a dump heap.”
He added that the dual complex will take in excess of $20 million to complete, with plans for NAMCO to [place] corporate offices in the building.
“I would say within weeks rather than months, the upper floor of the car park, there is a facility there that NAMCO is going to [build for] corporate offices. We will occupy corporate offices with conference rooms and all of the amenities for staff that we need,” he said.
The minister said this move will show NAMCO’s growth as a corporate entity.
The government is hoping that the building will not only become a multi-level car park in the near future, but also become a revenue-generation office complex.