Work could commence shortly on the renovation of a city building earmarked to accommodate a new multi million dollar pizza outlet which is to be established at a cost of between $60m and $90m.The building, situated south of Church’s Chicken at the corners of Camp and Middle streets has been awaiting the approval of the Mayor and City Council and the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA) ever since separate applications were sent to the two entities in June this year.
Managing Director of Camex Ltd. Terrence Campbell whose company is seeking to operate an outlet of the Trinidad and Tobago -based Mario’s under licence told Stabroek Business that he had acquired the Camp and Middle streets premises several months ago and had already paid more than $15M in rent without being able to effect the necessary renovation up to this time. Campbell said that while he had learnt recently that the M&CC had completed the processing of its part of the application, final approval from the CHPA was still to be granted. Campbell said that it was his understanding that the life of the Board of the CHPA expired recently and that approval had to await the setting up of a new board.
When Stabroek Business spoke with the CHPA on Wednesday this newspaper was told that a problem had indeed arisen as a result of the end of the life of the board but that the problem had been resolved. The senior CHPA official with whom Stabroek Business spoke said that a decision of the renovation request would be forthcoming in “under two weeks time.”
Campbell, who also holds the licence to operate Church\s Chicken said he believed that the problem was a bureaucratic one. He said that while he was arware that there were procedures associated with processing these matters he felt that his application for permission to renovate the Camp and Middle streets building had taken “far too long.” The CHPA official with whom Stabroek Business spoke conceded that the renovation application had taken “an unusually long time.” He said that eight weeks was the customary time frame for processing such applications.
Meanwhile Campbell told Stabroek Business that Camex had already acquired some equipment associated with the establishment of the new pizza outlet. He said that the delay had also given rise to the need for him to make contact with the Mario’s franchise holder in Port-of-Spain since it had been the expectation that the project would have been further advanced at this stage.
Campbell said that he was also concerned that bureaucratic delays of this nature served to slow down the growth of the business sector, a circumstance which he said had a “knock-on” effect on employment and revenue generation, among other things.
