Lease cancelled, prime land at Barracks sold

The Colonial Band Association will hold a meeting next week to decide what course of action to take if it is confirmed that a thirty year-old lease they hold on a prime property at the Newtown Barracks has been cancelled and the property sold. In a conversation this afternoon with C.B.A. President, Ellis Arnold, he told News Five’s Marion Ali that they have not received any notification that their lease has been cancelled.

For the past seven years the C.B.A. has given a management contract to the proprietors of Putt-Putt Bar and Grill to operate their business on the one hundred and fifty by two hundred foot parcel across the street from the Princess Hotel. In return, Putt Putt pays an undisclosed fee for use of the site. But that agreement will come to a sudden halt because it appears that the Ministry of Natural Resources has sold the land to businessman, Alfred Shakron, Operator of the J.E.C. pawn shop near the Belchina Bridge. Manager of Putt-Putt, Orson Elrington, is disturbed by the developments because he felt the C.B.A. or himself should have been given priority to buy the property.

Orson Elrington, Manager, Putt-Putt Bar and Grill
“It’s the price that they sold it at. Why if some other private entity can get it for that price, why should I get it at a different price?”

Marion Ali
“Could you have afforded the one hundred thousand?”

Orson Elrington
“Of course, well definitely, the land is valued way beyond. Any simple, any financial institution would look at that and just say okay, go right ahead. Any simple financial institution would write that off easily. The collateral on the property easily is worth the hundred of thousands of dollars, easily.”

“The request was simply to purchase the land, however, the request returned back point-blank. Simple and straight forward, turned back. They didn’t even give any response basically, no response.”

Marion Ali
“So if people were to come forth, residents in the area, it’s a residential area. Putt is an open-air nightspot, plays loud music that ends what three, four in the morning and it’s an open-air place, no sound proofing, in a residential area. If those residents would come forth and say but listen, it’s a nuisance to us, it’s been happening for years several years, away with Putt-Putt.”

Orson Elrington
“That points to the next point. Two parts to that question: the first part is that on several occasions there have only been two written complaints, two written complaints.”

Marion Ali
“But there have been verbal.”

Orson Elrington
“How can we confirm a verbal? I have not received any verbal. The only verbal, only the police supposedly have verbal, so I said if a person has a complaint please, send them to me.”

Marion Ali
“What would you have done, it’s a business, it’s a nightspot.”

Orson Elrington
“It’s a business, exactly, I would have addressed their concern.”

“Nobody is going to invest a certain amount of money in a property that at the end of the day, like what has happened here, can be easily taken up from underneath you. You understand mi? That is the whole thing when they keep on coming with the soundproofing, right. We keep on saying alright well we want to soundproof. We’re ready to make this investment, but we can’t make this investment unless we’re secure in our investment.”

Elrington says he will remain on the property and will direct an attorney to seek an injunction in the Supreme Court against the new owner and the Ministry of Natural Resources. This morning, Caribbean Shores Area Representative, Jose Coye told us that the deal was sealed between the Ministry and Shakron based on his support of Shakron’s plan to construct a craft centre on the site. Coye said several people had proposed to buy the land but he supported this idea because it complemented his own plan to refurbish the adjacent tennis court and turn that piece of land into a sports centre, managed by the National Sports Council. C.B.A. President Arnold told us that the Association never requested to buy the land over the years because they knew they did not have the funds to purchase the prime piece of property, said by Arnold, to be worth at least a quarter of a million dollars. C.B.A. also eventually received a lease to the adjacent land on which the tennis court sits after they amalgamated with the now defunct Newtown Club. That is the same piece of land on which Minister Coye wants to develop his sports centre. We tried to reach Alfred Shakron, but we were eventually told this evening that he might have travelled out of the country.