Three months after officially closing its doors, management of the Waterfront Café is set to auction off several items.
Barbados TODAY first reported the closure of the popular restaurant back in March when the restaurant served its final customer on Saturday, March 21.
In an interview this afternoon, ahead of Thursday’s auction, owner Susan Walcott told Barbados TODAY the sale of the building led to the closure of the restaurant after 35 years in operation.
The historic building which is located along Cavans Lane and which houses several other businesses, is to be sold to make way for hotel development.
A hotel is also to be developed at the nearby Carlisle House to the north west while the Hyatt hotel on Bay Street is to the south.
“The building got sold and it is to be developed. So there is no future anymore. There will be changes,” said Walcott.
She said she had no immediate plans of opening a new restaurant anywhere else, stating that she was “too old now to start business” at a new location.
“It is time now for the young ones to do it,” said the entrepreneur.
Looking forward to “a great day” on Thursday, Walcott said she anticipated that a number of loyal customers would be turning up.
Several contents of the restaurant will go on sale including jazz posters from around the world, pictures of musicians from the “famous wall”, other memorabilia and kitchen equipment.
Walcott said she was saddened by the closure of her restaurant, but reminiscing on the changes in Bridgetown over the years, said she welcomed planned development for the area.
“I have had a lot of months to think about it and I think it is going to be very sad for Bridgetown. Bridgetown didn’t have a lot going on and we were perhaps the few places open at night. Upstairs (the Marina Bar and Restaurant) was open too, but we didn’t have the same clientele. It is sad, but on the other hand it is making room, I guess. New things will come which is good, Bridgetown needs it desperately,” said Walcott
“When this was opened, Bridgetown was a thriving business hub, and over the years it has changed where even the Government has taken most of its offices out of town. So it has changed. We don’t have the clientele. The population of Bridgetown is half of what it used to be,” she said.
In July of last year Minister of Tourism Kerrie Symmonds revealed that Irish businessman, former chief executive officer of Coca-Cola E. Neville Isdell had expressed interest in investing approximately $30 million in the property which houses the Waterfront café.
In October last year while introducing the Barbados Tourism Product Authority (Amendment) Bill, Symmonds announced that following a tourism investment conference in April 2019, a number of opportunities were showcased for potential investors to make “greenfield investment” in Barbados.
At the time, Symmonds reported that several locations for investment were along the Carlisle Bay, St Michael area. He said the legal work had been signed with regard to the procurement of Carlisle House for the purposes of transforming that into a hotel.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
