By Neto Baptiste
The Antigua Turf Club (ATC), as part of a move to finalise an EC$30 million investment into the Cassada Gardens Race Track, will receive a fifty-year lease on the property.
This is according to president of the ATC, Hansen Richards, who also said that the body will receive additional lands at the site for further development and expansion.
“The government has approved of the investment, and also approved of us staying at Cassada Gardens, and will grant us a lease of fifty years with additional parcels on the northern side to extend the development of the facility, so we at the turf club are very happy for what the government has granted us as well as the investments group, and from the investor’s side of it, they have to now fund an escrow account which we are currently working on to start the process to rebuilding the facility,” he said.
Government, in January, revealed it had received a request from the Caravelle Group based in St Croix, hoping to improve the Cassada Gardens Race track, but noted that “Cabinet is considering alternatives.”
Following negotiations between Cabinet and the turf club, it was however decided the track will remain at its current location, despite a push by government to have it relocated.
Richards said that although work is scheduled to start in short order, there will be no races at the facility until the track is completed.
“No racing until we are finished fixing the track. We have to reshape it, resurface it, rerail it and simultaneously, the investment group will be building their building to handle the gaming aspect of the investment, so it’s a lot of construction and so on going to be taking place at the track, but we are hoping that once the race course is ready we could, at least, have some small races for the public,” he said.
The turf club recently won a court battle against Carlton “Tyre Master” Lewis, giving them rights to the facility after the businessman claimed he had a valid lease for the property. The turf club won the case against Lewis in 2018, and then the appeal in 2022.