Haymans Market, a new dining, retail and entertainment complex, now into its fourth month on the site of the old Haymans sugar plantation and factory in St Peter, was formally opened on Wednesday.
The shopping centre which features several family-friendly restaurants, a sports bar, gourmet food stalls, retail shops, and a market area opened for business last December.
Bernie Weatherhead, chairman of the Sun Group which owns the property, described a new lease on life for the plantation which dates back to the earliest years of settlement in the 1600s.
He said: “Haymans was a dream. When I looked at buying it in mid-2017, I received an envelope from a realtor in Barbados that had five… derelict sugar factories in it. Three caught my eye…. But honestly, I used to drive past Haymans, and [it] struck me as, you know, with the view, it would be a fantastic place to put something that actually was for the people, by the people, and for tourism.”
Weatherhead shared an anecdote about a conversation with his friend Roger Smith when he first purchased the property: “Roger Smith . . . stood outside at the front of this old building and said, ‘Bernie, where are you going to start?’ I said ‘on that left-hand corner’ . . . . He says, ‘Boy, this will never be done’. My wife up to today will tell you that she never expected to see it finished in her lifetime.”
The purchase from its former owner, the state-owned Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC) was finalised in December 2017 and work began soon after BADMC moved out, though it was delayed by the pandemic in 2020.
“As soon as we got an opening, we used it, and this is what it is today,” Weatherhead said.
Further plans are in progress, including adding a new floor and more vendor booths, as all 95 spaces have already been rented out with another 72 retailers eager to move in, he said.
“Tourism badly needs things in Barbados to do, and I think I am proud to say that it appears that Barbadians need something to do, too, because they’re in here all the time celebrating,” the hotel and tour operation magnate told an audience that included Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Tourism Minister Ian Gooding-Edghill, Energy and Small Business Minister Senator Lisa Cummins, and US Ambassador to Barbados Roger Nyhus.
(RG)
