Fontabelle is about to suffer one of its most significant business departures, signalling the further decay of activity in this once bustling commercial district and throwing a new stumbling block in the way of efforts to revitalise Bridgetown.
And on the heels of yesterday’s confirmation that CIBC FirstCaribbean will be closing its branch there after almost 36 years, partly because of the “ongoing migration of business” out of The City, Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry executive director Lisa Gale said she expected the trend to continue.
Additionally, realtor Ron Karp said while it was likely some companies would eventually return to the nation’s capital, the current state of the Barbados economy was a discouragement.
The bank’s managing director for Barbados, Donna Wellington, yesterday announced that the Fontabelle branch would close for a final time on April 25, with its operations to be “rolled into its new super-branch at the Warrens Banking Centre” and its 17 employees to be “absorbed into other branches”.
