Developer says beachfront vision stalled with no word from authorities

Planning authorities are to investigate why a local developer’s application to build a multi-storey hotel—later revised to condominiums—at Carlisle Bay has languished without a decision for nearly a decade, Barbados TODAY can reveal.

The senior minister responsible for infrastructure said he will seek a report from technocrats on the status of the application which was submitted nine years ago.

Allan Kinch, owner of Savvy on the Bay, a 24-hour beach bar and event venue that hosts food trucks and an entertainment stage on site, had initially applied to the Town and Country Planning Development Department to build a hotel and food truck park on the site.

That proposal was rejected, with officials suggesting instead that he build condominiums, Kinch said.

Even after revising his application as required by authorities, proposals for other beachside accommodation projects submitted since his have been approved swiftly, while he continues to wait.

“I had applied for a hotel, and then they told me they weren’t going to give me . . . . they weren’t going to allow me to put a hotel there. They said I would have to reduce the number of rooms. So, I changed it from a 300-room hotel to a 30-condo building,” the investor told Barbados TODAY.

Kinch said he was later informed by government officials during a site visit that he would not be allowed to build ten storeys, only eight.

But the entrepreneur complained that planning permission has been granted for the construction of condominiums next to the Barbados Yacht Club on the beachfront at Upper Bay Street.

“And that permission came out in five months,” said Kinch. “That was applied for in January last year, and the permission was given in June. I had applied for the hotel where Savvy is. We could reinstate the jetty and the food vendors here would move out onto the jetty. So, the condos would be on the land and the jetty would have all the food and bar; everybody would still have work.”

When authorities asked him if he would swap two acres from the government across the road for an acre on the seaside, he agreed.

“I found an investor who was willing to come and build a hotel over there, 100-and-something-room hotel and a multi-storey car park; and everything was agreed, and then, they’ve done nothing,” Kinch complained.

He recalled that the government had even expressed the desire to have the process completed within two months. “That was two years ago,” he said.

“It had a hearing because the town planner recommended refusal, and what happens is it then gets sent for a hearing. The prime minister appoints somebody to do a hearing. The hearing was done since last year, but I haven’t received permission or refusal yet. That is for the condos and the food trucks.”

Senior Minister of Planning, Development and Infrastructural Projects Dr William Duguid, indicated that he will be looking into the matter.

“I will ask for a report on the matter about his revision [from hotel to condos] and the status of the application,” Dr Duguid told Barbados TODAY on Monday.

In a related development, Kinch—whose longstanding negotiations with the government to acquire the existing Savvy on the Bay site remain unresolved—welcomed the planned construction of the multi-million-dollar African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) Caribbean headquarters complex and hotel across the road on the land side.

The site of the old General Hospital, later the headquarters of the ministries of health and education, is being given to Afreximbank free of cost to develop the area.

“It will be very good,” Kinch replied when asked how the high-rise project would impact his present business.

“If you can imagine, if you’ve got a hotel with, I think, it is ten storeys, and they are supposed to have about 200 rooms. So, if you’ve got 400 people staying there looking for somewhere to have lunch or dinner or breakfast, I think that the food vans will do well.

“And then they have a ten-storey office building that would probably have, I would think, 300 employees or more . . . so, they’re all looking for food and drinks too.”

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb