41 days to the official launch of the newly renovated B.T.L. Park

The countdown for the official launch of the newly renovated BTL Park has commenced and, to mark the occasion, Mayor Darrell Bradley was on hand to erect a sign notifying the public of the grand re-opening.  After weeks of diligent labor to uplift the recreational space, anticipation is building up for the December seventh launch.  According to the mayor, there will be a total of twenty-three vendors operating in the area, seven of whom were previous tenants at the park.

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor

Darrell Bradley

“Well one of the issues in relation to the vendors in B.T.L. Park was that they were very concerned with growing the park. Originally the park had seven kiosks, now we are bringing twenty-three. So one of the concerns that was raised is that well if you have twenty-three people, we want to ensure that it is commercially viable; that people don’t run out of business. That there is not a glut; you can’t have twenty-three people selling hotdogs…nobody will be making any money. So that what we are doing is that we are having a lot of conversations with the vendors association so that we leave it up to them to ensure that they are telling us what kind of businesses that will be in B.T.L. Park. We have thirty-two applications and we have seven original vendors. So we are supposed to have forty types of business proposals. A lot of it is very dynamic; there is a proposal about a jet-ski business. Somebody sent us an idea in relation to we are going to have a pier; they want to have a boat on the end of the pier so that you can come to B.T.L. Park and they can take you on a tour for twenty minutes around the coastline of Belize City and bring you back to the park. There is a business idea that has to do with flowers in the park. So that if you are walking with your girlfriend or your boyfriend or your wife or your husband, you can stop and buy a flowers and say here darling; that kind of thing. So a lot of the ideas that we have are very innovative; it is very different; it is very novel. We are trying to…we will have a lot of food vendors, but we are trying to diversify for the mere fact that we want it to be commercially viable—everybody can’t sell the same thing. That discussion is being held at the City Council level together with the vendors. So that whatever decision we make with relation to selections, it is going to be a partnership and a joint decision.”

The park will be inaugurated on December seventh with a series of events commemorating the completion of the project.