Fire Department Property is Sold to Atlantic Bank

Atlantic Bank Limited has purchased a prime piece of prime property belonging to the Government of Belize. The property is located on Cleghorn Street in Belize City, adjacent to Atlantic Bank. It is the headquarters for the National Fire Services in the Old Capital and the value of the sale is unconfirmed, though it is expected that the bank would pay a hefty price due to the location. The Fire Department will have to vacate the location by the end of the year.  Minister of Transport and NEMO Edmond Castro says that the process of the relocation of the fire department to a better location in the city has been in the works for many years. According to Castro, the new fire department will be located in the Holy Emmanuel area near Chetumal Boulevard. He says that with the monies received from Atlantic Bank, a second fire station will be built near the municipal airstrip.

Edmond Castro

Edmond Castro, Minister of Transport and NEMO

“It is a process that has been in the works for even before I became the minister responsible for fire. I think it was during honorable Melvin Hulse. So it is a process that took forever to complete and now that is has been completed from some months ago whereby Atlantic Bank paid the government of Belize for that portion of land. I think they want it maybe for parking. I think they are in the area where they don’t have any parking for their business. That money has been paid to the government of Belize which in turn we are setting up the new head quarters for the fire department in the Chetumal street area, somewhere over there. The money is sufficient to build the fire station with adequate land space for parking, for the fire station and I think if my memory serves me right that we will have some money set said to also have a fire station in the municipal airstrip area. So we are getting two fire stations basically from the money that we collected from that location.”

Reporter

“Is it a case that they bought it over or is it something that the fire station was going to move even before the transaction came into the play?”

Edmond Castro

“Even if they did not complete that transaction, the fire department had already located adequate piece of land in that Chetumal Street area so the headquarters for fire would have moved there anyhow because it is really crummy for the type and size of trucks to be maneuvering in and out of that area. So was in the process to move out of there anyways.”