By Latrishka Thomas
The government has resumed discussions on refurbishing the Sunshine Hub Car Park in St John’s, a project that began in 2005 but was halted in 2010 due to funding issues.
Since then, despite promises to complete the construction, progress has been slow.
Yesterday, Chief of Staff in the Office of the Prime Minister, Lionel Hurst, said that the government is considering completing at least part of the building to generate revenue.
“The whole idea is to make that car park begin to do some useful work that will produce revenue by placing ABS [state media] on the uppermost floor and making some other space available to businesses … we believe that we can then complete the car park,” he stated.
“We notice that about 50 cars, every day, park on the outside of the car park. Well, we disallow that so that they will park inside of the car park and there will be some restrictions on parking on the streets,” he added.
Hurst mentioned that the building has been structurally examined, and the plan is for the National Asset Management Company (NAMCO) to fund the refurbishment.
“The cost is going to be borne by the NAMCO, which is the owner of several of the catalyst enterprises that are operated by the government of Antigua and Barbuda and therefore it receives dividends, which it is required then to use to increase the value of the monies it has been granted,” Hurst further explained.
The Sunshine Hub Car Park was purchased by the Antigua Barbuda Labour Party administration in March 2017 for further development under NAMCO.
In early January 2020, the government announced that work would begin within a week.
A perimeter fence was erected in February 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted those plans and there has been little progress since then.
The facility is designed to accommodate around 250 vehicles.