The owners of Norman Centre Mall on Broad Street say there is a clear and present danger to tenants and there can be no delay of their removal from the building.
Stephen Edghill, a director of Norman Finance Development Limited, gave this response yesterday to the DAILY?NATION as tenants of the 34-year-old Bridgetown facility appealed for an additional three months to find new places from which to operate.
Norman Centre, which was established by Trinidadian business mogul Anthony Sabga in 1976 and named after his son, is scheduled for redevelopment including the construction of a new four-storey car park at the rear of the building.
But the mall’s 26 tenants, who sent a letter to Edghill last week begging him to reconsider the 60-day notice for them to vacate, now say they are prepared to seek a court injunction to stop their removal at the end of next month.
Edghill, who is also chairman of ANSA?McAL?Barbados, pointed out that the building had serious electrical challenges and the Barbados Light & Power had indicated it wanted to change the transformer supplying power to the building.
“The building needs to be rewired. There is going to be no power to the building because the old transformer is going to be removed and supply will be interrupted for about a week or more.
“It is something that we have put off for a long time . . . it is dangerous to leave it as it is . . . . I’ve asked the tenants if they would take responsibility if a fire broke out in the building,” Edghill said.
While not revealing the cost of refurbishment and new construction, the businessman said electrical work alone on the mall was almost $1 million.
“I know the tenants want more time, but it is not within my discretion to prolong something that can be dangerous. Nobody likes change, but the thing has become a hazard,” he added.
Meanwhile, tenants in their letter to Edghill said: “As all businesses in Barbados and indeed across the region, we have struggled financially for the past 18 months and more so during the past six months. To now be faced with this termination of tenancy early in what is traditionally our high season which runs through April 30, quite frankly is unconscionable and a ‘blow below the belt’.
“Indeed, as this is a planned event, we ask why the renovations have been chosen to be undertaken at this time and not, more appropriately, during the slower late summer/early fall months? . . . . Any assumption that we can quickly and seamlessly find another comparable location and that it will be business as usual is unrealistic.”