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Old National Insurance Building to be Demolished

The government plans to demolish the Old National Insurance Building and the adjacent Fire Station to create a park in the city. In related news the Treasury Building will be converted into a “mixed use facility”.It is not widely known that the Treasury Building is another of those “sick buildings”and staff from the Barbados Revenue…

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The government plans to demolish the Old National Insurance Building and the adjacent Fire Station to create a park in the city. In related news the Treasury Building will be converted into a “mixed use facility”.It is not widely known that the Treasury Building is another of those “sick buildings”and staff from the Barbados Revenue Authority have been relocated from the Treasury Building to the Building next door.
The blogmaster likes the idea of improving the look of Bridgetown. With the arrival of the Hyatt the government may feel moved to “clean up” Bridgetown on an accelerated timetable.
David, blogmaster
The following was extracted from Thomas Sankara’s Facebook page.

#OLDNISBUILDING Good afternoon, please note I am apolitical and my conscience is not for rent, lease, sublet or hire. Why my silence on matters environmental , busy with school and the maturity of knowing when to speak. Sorry to disappoint those who spread malicious gossip about my silence. William Duguid Ronald Toppin Peter R. Phillips John King David King Arturo Edward Jeffrey Bostic Dwight Sutherland Indar A Weir Edmund Hinkson

When will the sale of the glass doors, glass frames, partitions and other salvageable parts of the building will take place. In case you have forgotten its called #UpCycling and is part of what is known as the #CircularEconomy Kirk Humphrey Dale Marshall. Such a building pre demolition can have materials removed worth hundreds of thousand of dollars and post demolition recovery of metals and debris can reused. Old concrete can make new cement and old metals can make new metals.

This is the taxpayers building and whatever can be sold pre demolition must be salvaged via fire sales. Dominique Tudor Vincent Haynes Heather Cole David Spieler Andrew Simpson

131 responses to “Old National Insurance Building to be Demolished”

  1. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Hot and sweaty being urged to think and take specialist advice.

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/01/11/build-carefully-warn-engineers/

  2. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Miller
    You make me laugh. Instead of constantly asking me things, write the PM and relevant ministers etc. I am not involved in government.

  3. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Ya do know no one wants to go anyway near any of those who are under investigation…..not even by email..

    Me thinks everything can wait until we see where all the chips fall.

    Nice mascota pequena….am liking the new and improved yardfowls mas mejor.

  4. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Yuh know I support the Govt in its plan to plant more trees but I wondered if it was well thought out or everyone is simply responding to Mia’s edict. Thus, I am not surprised when in its first effort there is push back from some of the people affected.

    I had a couple of concerns and maybe I missed the announcement:

    1) Did the Gov’t indicate what species /varieties of tries it would be planting
    2) Was it going to plant trees that were indigenous to Bim and had vanished from he landscape due to over development
    3) Where was it going to plant a million trees

    They partially answered the last question by planting trees at a Gov’t owned entity without consulting the farmers who use some of the land for their grazing animals and now the farmers are seeing “red”

    Oh well

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/01/11/farmers-fret-on-tree-planting-project/

  5. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “Based on the information I received I made a decision, but on social media and in the papers it was said and juxtaposed with this matter with St Pierre and it has caused me a lot of distress.”

    And somehow he has anointed himself as the victim, he is in so much sissy distress…but when this piece of shit he released finally murders this woman, they will all find a way to blame it on her.

  6. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “Me thinks everything can wait until we see where all the chips fall.”

    Miller….stay in ya lane, don’t allow the nueva, sympatica fowls ..lure you out.

  7. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Enuff January 11, 2020 8:50 AM
    “You make me laugh. Instead of constantly asking me things, write the PM and relevant ministers etc. I am not involved in government.”
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Neither were you “involved in government” prior to May 2018.

    But you did a pretty darn good job as a senior member of the Opposition and, on BU, an excellent critic of the previous administration’s ‘bleeps, blunders and foul-ups’; some of them deliberately devised (like Cahill and the Credit Suisse loans) to the detriment of the country’s economic and social wellbeing.

    What we are simply expecting of you- now that you are sitting in the dugout openly hailing for the team in the red jerseys- is to wear the cap marked “Commonsense” and through a love of Pride & Industry be a bit more objectively balanced and constructive in your criticisms of any government policy.

    As a highflying project manager of international experience don’t you thing that the sourcing of Finance of any major commercial venture ought to be a top item in any feasibility study of a project with such massive potential economic impact on a small country like Barbados?

    Even Cahill must have had its sources of funding identified as ‘Foreign Investors’ according to C C!

    We have had “enuff” of your one-sided tantrums in defence of your drama queen bee mummy!
    Time to stand up and be man ‘enuff’ to ask serious questions of practical importance.

  8. WURA--War-on-U Avatar
    WURA–War-on-U

    Miller…this is what is cutting their backsides now…their over ambitious foray and expansion into other people’s jurisdictions when they should have used that same evil energy, turn into into positives and TAKE CARE of the people and country as their EVIL ASSES were ELECTED and PAID TO DO…but not them…they BETRAYED the people and island for 80 years using their well established CRIMINAL SYNDICATE…ya should see what they have accomplished for themselves…but NOTHING FOR THE BLACK POPULATION…

    “Why is the other MM so keen to hold on to his pick at this poorly-managed airline unless he sees airplanes as just models of racing cars in the air?”

    You can guarantee something dirty and corrupt has gone on and is still going on there…they have spread their corruption so far and unbelievably WIDE that anything is possible. No wonder Barbados has been so severely mismanaged and neglected over the dedades while billions of dollars were removed from the economy….they were too busy establishing a CORRUPTION EXPANSION….their crime syndicate and filthy tentacles have EXPANDED beyond anyone’s imagination…..so they had no time to take care of the people’s business nor the island’s infrastructure.

    Problem with such massive extensions into other people’s jurisdictions……..you lose control.

    LIARS, FRAUDS AND DEMONS…they will all GO DOWN TOGETHER…even the people have now realized what they have done to their grandparents, parents and current and future generations…hence the call for their dirty criminal syndicate to leave,p.

    Ah want their yardfowls to be dragged off the island in full glare of cameras too.

  9. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    While Mia talks of planting trees and demolishing buildings the farmers fret over valuable grasslands which are being used by govt to plant trees
    Grasslands which have been set aside for the feeding of their livestock
    David dont u think that this issue is of importance to the economy of barbados and should be given high preference in an article on BU instead of Granville Phillips worn out Monday sermons
    Here in effect govt once again rolled measures that can affect the performance of the local business community and the economy in a harshest manner
    ———-‘—— xxxx

    Some farmers complained that the National Tree Planting project is taking up valuable pasture for their animals.

    The use of a huge tract grassland at Hope Plantation, St Lucy for the tree planting exercise sparked opposition among farmers who declined to identify themselves in interviews with Barbados TODAY.

    One farmer complained: “With Government saying they want to increase the Black Belly [sheep] population.

    “To remove 20 plus acres of grasslands is counterproductive.

    “This will hurt the livestock industry at all levels. The most disturbing thing is the land was in production.”
    The farmer argued that the land at the state-owned Hope Plantation, the home of the Government’s pioneering Hope Dairy Farm from the 1960s, was currently being used by livestock farmers, who now are forced to find alternative grazing grounds.

    The farmers have urged Government to spare lands in agricultural production from the project.

    The farmer said: “An exercise like this should have used marginal lands and cleared some overgrown areas so one sector should not suffer at the hands of the other.

    “Seeing what took place, I didn’t see any participation of St Lucy residents or any notification.”

    Last Saturday, members of the Barbados Youth Advance Corp, Barbados 4 H Club as well as representatives from the Barbados Fire Service and Barbados Defence Force planted more than 2,000 trees at Hope Plantation.

  10. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Miller
    Your pet project the Hyatt is at the stage of seeking planning permission, financing is irrelevant to a planning decision. Permission is time bound so if the project is not started by the prescribed deadline the permission expires. Secondly, once permission is granted a site can be sold to anyone with that permission intact. As far as I know, a planning permission can’t be denied because the financing is not known and for good reasons. Imagine you gone to a financier, incur costs then don’t get permission. Planning permission is a passport to finance.

  11. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Enuff January 12, 2020 2:22 PM

    You are the one making us laugh by making a joker out of your intellectual self.

    Stop playing the part of the clown wearing a mock red nose and think with(in) your brain box instead of ‘through’ your strainer of raw political passion.

    We are not dealing with the construction of a private property on a piece of ‘tenantry’ land left to you by your godfather in his will.

    We are dealing with a massive commercial project with national economic importance to be undertaken by a private sector developer who is out to make a return on the investment.

    Where in the realm of serious project evaluation would the sources of finance not be identified in the proposal to justify its acceptance by the shareholders’ representative as a feasible investment?

    Do you realize that this Hyatt project has been in the planning pipeline for a number of years and which has been given the de facto green light by both ‘MoTs’ with the current incumbent telling Parliament that construction of the hotel (not planning approval) will begin in February 2020?

    Which businessman other than a madman would put himself through so much negative publicity, stress and risky premature dealings like applying for a duty-free luxury vehicle unless he is cocksure that his project is a winner?

    What are you saying here, “man enuff”? That the developer would actually submit a plan for an imaginary hotel employing a ghost to fill the position of Sales Director?

    Who in their right Crown ministerial mind would defraud the Treasury and grant a duty-free luxury vehicle to a hotel for which no planning approval has been obtained from the appropriate minister?

    Suppose the plan to build the hotel is turned down by an ‘uncompromised’ cabinet minister?
    Would the developer be firing the ghost-like Sales Director and return the duty-free luxury vehicle to the dealer with so many kilometers on the clock?

  12. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    Miller…they got trouble Enuff…they just got that soft in the head fool trying to distract everyone, but their shit is real and it’s coming DOWN…

  13. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Miller
    “We are dealing with a massive commercial project with national economic importance to be undertaken by a private sector developer who is out to make a return on the investment…..Which businessman other than a madman would put himself through so much negative publicity, stress and risky premature dealings like applying for a duty-free luxury vehicle unless he is cocksure that his project is a winner?”

    They are project flippers who do this all time. Anyhow in this instance you have answered the question yourself. Why would your pal Maloney persist not knowing where the money is coming from? Furthermore, why would the DF vehicle for a Sales Director be issued without the then MoF being assured of finance? I repeat, the grant of permission is not dependent on the applicant proving they have the finance. If true, Four Seasons would be done and all the other projects that stalled due to financing. I never questioned the financing under the DLP and I don’t question it now, I focus on the principle and design etc. Unlike you, I don’t conflate issues. You’re interested in the finance since the DLP and I said ask the PM or ministers involved. Now stop asking me nonsense about financing.

  14. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Enuff January 12, 2020 4:09 PM

    So you consider the financing aspect of a project to be “nonsense”?

    What do you think turns an investment plan into revenue-generating commercial realty? Wishing and hoping through prayers and more prayers??

    Who is going to pay the Rams for their compulsory acquired property? The taxpayers?

    So what’s holding up the Blue Horizon plan?

    What has been holding up the Andrew’s sugar factory rehabilitation project to make Barbados self-sufficient in its electricity generation needs?

    Wasn’t that an approved plan just awaiting the drawdown of the approved US$ 270 million loan sitting in a Japanese bank?

    You are beginning to look like a real dummy of a ventriloquist puppet with your strings pulled by lying politicians.

  15. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    Miller…ah told ya, these tied up themselves so much with their shenanigans….that at this point, they do not know which way is UP..and all their layers and layers and layers of companies are being PEELED BACK EVERY DAY….wait until those with the resources really have a go at all of that..

    ya see Dale Whistleblower was so rattled in the Money Launder’s Inc video from the parliament…he looked like he would CUT & RUN when all the info got revealed, soft bowels…well let me tell ya, they all have a lot to cut and run for…..he well have Enuff company…lol.

    I think someone said Donville’s case is demain=n in Brooklyn, that should be a good practice run for all of them.

  16. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Miller
    No I consider you asking me, to be nonsense. I can understand if you write your posts and direct them to the government. How would I know where the finance coming from? A complete and separate process; but you continue to conflate the issues. By the way financing and the financial viability ain’t the same thing. You can undertake the development economics/viability of a project without having secured the finance. The fact that so many projects with permission have stalled proves my point. You may have the last say.

  17. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Enuff January 12, 2020 7:56 PM

    Of course the “last word” called ‘Commonsense’ shall prevail.
    We are not in any classroom theoretically discussing the financial viability of some hypothetical project.

    The financial viability of an investment project is a result of calculations (based on a set of both quantitative and qualitative assumptions) comparing the projected incomes with estimated expenditures and is deemed acceptable (using an appropriate cost of capital) if the NPV> 0.

    Financing of that project, however, is a real’ transaction involving the use of actual funds provided by the shareholders/owners or sourced from third parties in the form of loans e.g. banks.

    All we are asking for is clarification on whether the Hyatt would be financed by way of foreign direct investment (FDI) or from local sources like the developer’s own money or by way of borrowings from the banks, insurance companies, large trust funds, etc.

    And if the source(s) of finance is going to be local (like the Valerie and Grotto housing projects) whose forex savings (other than the IMF borrowings) would be expected to step up to the collection plate to back the inevitable outflows of forex needed to bring that US$ 175 million project on stream and ready to accommodate foreign guests?

    In other words, would the government have to secure a foreign loan to build up the Central Bank’s foreign reserves?

    So which one you believe the financing (not its ‘estimated’ financial viability) of the Hyatt hotel will come under? FDI, Scotia or Sagicor or NIS?

    You can answer to the Salemite who has more commonsense than you give her credit for.

  18. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    “All we are asking for is clarification on whether the Hyatt would be financed by way of foreign direct investment (FDI) or from local sources like the developer’s own money or by way of borrowings from the banks, insurance companies, large trust funds, etc”

    we all know the fowls have short memories…but you have been asking that question repeatedly for about 3 YEARS now, since the crooks came up with that Hyatt scam…we all know they are waiting for the treasury and pension fund to return to reasonable levels before they RAID THEM BOTH AGAIN…and give the usual lame excuses about why it has to be done..

    …. remember 4 Seasons scam…60 MILLION US dollars that we know about DISAPPEARED never to be returned to the pension fund, rendering pensioners and disability victims BROKE AND HUNGRY while they pay whiteHOAX to show them how to STARVE THE VULNERABLE…so they can BOAST about meeting IMF targets……it has always been a scam to fill all their pockets and CRIPPLE THE PEOPLE FINANCIALLY ONCE AGAIN.

    hence you will never get a straight answer about where the funds are coming from to build the scam.

  19. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    And never forget with the Redjet airline…when their 40 million dollar investment ran out…the Bizzy crooks who were investors TRIED their best to RAID THE PENSION FUND TO KEEP IT IN THE AIR…even though it was ALREADY RAIDED for the 4 Seasons scam…

    ……these animals…no disrespect to animals…believe that the Black population’s money belongs to them and are always dipping their corrupt hands in it stealing, thanks to the black faces in parliament…..gotta KEEP reminding them THAT IT DON’T..belong to any of them.

  20. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ WURA-WAR-on-U January 13, 2020 5:57 AM

    Lest you forget the Pierhead Marina scam project which was milked to the max by way of design and redesign.

    Where can you find the Quisling architect behind this one?

    Now where is that project other than locked in a filing cabinet and dumped in the same Carlisle bay?

    How come that ‘prestigious project’ designed to cater to millionaire sailors of pleasure crossing the Atlantic like in the good ole days of sail is not part of the current incarnation of the Bridgetown redevelopment plan?

    What a great marriage of ecstasy that would make!

    Can you imagine disembarking from a multi-million yacht sailing on the high seas to be escorted with the world of pleasure to a crystal palace in the ‘white’ Hyatt sky?

  21. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    To be fair Mia in her role as minister responsible for Investment should address the issue of funding. Given MAM2 has been adopted by this administration one assumes the government should be privy to the finer details. The question- talk about project financing should come before or after TP permissions.

    It is a valid concern knowing that it is a strategic partnership that involves taxpayers support.

  22. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ David January 13, 2020 9:07 AM

    But it is so obvious!

    Without the finance the Hyatt is nothing more than an approved plan of a sky-high dream which has been in the investment pipeline for too long and needs to be brought into the light of reality.

    Hyatt will always have its detractors but the needs and expectations of the majority are for the greater good.

    Has it been convincingly argued by the Guv of the Central Bank (both past and present), that the Hyatt project is an economic lifeline for Barbados to grasp with both hands or it will sink in an unemployment sea of social chaos?

    What’s wrong with fast-tracking the final approval of this Hyatt project the same way certain pieces of legislation or ‘strategic’ concessions are rushed/pushed through the bureaucratic process?

    Barbados is going through an IMF programme and needs to see as many shoots of economic growth as possible in order to generate tax revenues and forex to meet the performance targets and repay the foreign loans.

    BTW, any word about the status of Wyndham and Four Seasons projects?

  23. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    I keep laughing how wunna keep talking about the “imaginery Hyatt”
    Ok just maybe govt can build a hotel on all that unoccupied land
    Oh and don’t forget the added UNESCO voices adding fuel to 🔥

  24. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    (Arthur) Miller
    “All we are asking for is clarification on whether the Hyatt would be financed by way of foreign direct investment (FDI) or from local sources like the developer’s own money or by way of borrowings from the banks, insurance companies, large trust funds, etc.”

    And for the umpteenth time how would I know? Is it not best to ask the powers that be rather than me like I have repeatedly stated?

    You are expected to support Abigail de Salemite. Isn’t she a character you created and one of your more infamous ones too? Your crucible somehow seems to be struggling to handle the heat, leading you to conflate, contradict, obfuscate, engage in verbal gymnastics and try to insult. My premise is still irrefutable: the securing of finance is not a requirement of planning permission; and, knowing costs, IRR, NPV etc etc does not mean financing has been secured. I am happy to see the EIA for the hotel (Indego) at the Caribbee site is done and available for public viewing and a meeting scheduled. You and your character may start to draft all yuh attack. Maybe another scam by the government ent?

  25. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    Government must be aware of how the Hyatt will be financed, if this was not the case why would it feel compelled to compulsorily acquire Liquidation Centre?

  26. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    “My premise is still irrefutable: the securing of finance is not a requirement of planning permission; and, knowing costs, IRR, NPV etc etc does not mean financing has been secured.”

    of course not…the CORRUPT..tend to make it up as they GO ALONG…and it ALWAYS TENDS to end up in the TREASURY and PENSION FUND…ya would think if they were not all so corrupt…they would have changed this backward as ass philosophy already…..no proof ya got 200 MILLION TO BUILD A SCAM HOTEL…NO PLANNING PERMISSION….but what would be the point…no bribes and kickbacks by the MILLIONS of stolen taxpayers and pensioners money involved in that progresive change…..

    that is how the pension fund lost HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS….to these damn THIEVES..

    ya sound STRESSED Enuff…go for a swim or a walk.

  27. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    Miller…am all YOUR FAULT…so there…

  28. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    Miller…my creator, this has gotten too big for moi…someone bigger and badder gotta deal with this…lawdie, we have reached that place where anything can be revealed next AND NONE OF IT ANY GOOD, me much prefer be a spectator from here on in…the fowls can NOW TAKE OVER as they have always wanted…I have paved the way.

  29. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    Piece..my friend, maybe ya can help the fowls with their TAKE OVER going forward, while i rest and watch..

  30. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Enuff January 13, 2020 10:45 AM
    “My premise is still irrefutable: the securing of finance is not a requirement of planning permission; and, knowing costs, IRR, NPV etc etc does not mean financing has been secured.”
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Who is arguing that financing must be secured before planning approval is granted.

    It was never argued to the contrary. The same way it would be stupid to expect the T&CP Office to turn down your application to construct a house on your grand father’s land without you securing a mortgage.

    Listen to me carefully, “enuff’, we are just concerned that this planned Hyatt of a project of many iterations and too many years in the investment pipeline could end up like the Pierhead marina, the Andrews Sugar resuscitation multi-purpose factory, the Canadian-owned solar farm at Codrington, Cahill or even the promised brand new QEH at Kingsland.

    The only sacrificial lambs arising from these great projections of infrastructural improvements are the taxpayers’ pockets aka the Treasury.

    While the Hyatt planning grass is slowly growing the unemployment horse in the construction industry is starving.

    What would be the MoT’s excuse when the promised start date of February 2020 has to be put back again.

    What would be the planning stumbling block this time around? The need to relocate the Bethel Methodist church and disturb the dead and send poor Comissiong into an eternal state of grieving for his daddy?

    “Until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven.” ― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

  31. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    What would be the planning stumbling block this time around?
    You already know it is the sales of the condos, the tower of lifestyle to be constructed on these lands. The Willy Lomanesque character driving those dutyless German wheels, has to get a number of ferners to put down, a.k.a downpayment, $US for one of those ‘soon to be completed’ castles in the sky.

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