Does Belmopan CitCo Want 370K for Market in the Capital City?

Developer David Zabaneh isn’t happy with the Belmopan City Council. It’s been two months since we began to report on Zabaneh’s proposed business, the’ Belmopan Market Plaza.’ According to Zabaneh, he has been meeting with the City Council and was preparing for a November thirteenth opening but today he was taken aback when he was informed that he would be paying more than three hundred and fifty thousand dollars in taxes and fees to operate his market. Zabaneh says that if he were to pay that money every year – that would be about seventy-percent of his gross earnings annually.  He believes that the Council is trying to get him to stop the project.

David Zabaneh, Businessman

“They came at us with twenty-seven thousand dollars per year trade license. So, we said okay – this is probably negotiable. We came here to negotiate. We kept listening and in addition to that – a twenty eight thousand dollars a year for garbage. It didn’t stop there. By the time I tallied everything up with the surcharge for vendor and everything – we were at three hundred and sixty-seven thousand dollars a year as fees to operate a market – payable to the City Council. Now, the last I check, they were nowhere near that in any revenue for market and their market has been dying a slow death at the trade show grounds.  I reached out to a couple of my associates, my lawyer and they told me the best thing to do is to fight it because it is crazy. How can you pay three hundred and sixty-seven thousand dollars a year in business tax, basically, because that is what they are asking.”

David Zabaneh

Reporter

“Have you been able to do an estimate percentage wise how much of your projected income will they be requiring from you?”

David Zabaneh

“We did some rough figures – it is near seventy percent of what we expect to gross. And that is gross – we are not even talking about our expenses; the lease on the property; the maintenance; employees we have to hire. So, clearly it is ridiculous. I know they said we are going to negotiate but starting at three seventy – that is a non-starter. I think they are clearly trying to discourage the project but at the end of the day it is not about me. We have over a hundred vendors looking to move, they want to move and they have a legal right to move. They are suffering and we need to get these vendors back in Central Belmopan. So, come hell or high water, there is a legal route to handle this.”