Changing face of the Port of Port-of-Spain

The long-awaited transformation of the Port of Port-of-Spain is moving from the drawing board to the ground. Chairman of UdeCOTT (Urban Development Company of TT), Calder Hart, said that UDeCOTT had already completed quite a lot of work and spent millions on the project for some of the facilities proposed particularly as it related to design and feasibility studies. Hart said the Corporation was now in the final stages of hiring a Development Manager for the project, which can either be an individual or a consortium or joint venture, but whose responsibility would be to review the preliminary designs and studies and as its construction manager, take charge and develop the project.

Pretty soon the Port will undergo its massive change, and this time it won’t be through the installation of large gantry cranes or expansive marshalling areas for stacks and stacks of unaesthetic containers. There is one condition, however. The services provided by the Development Manager must be consistent with world class standards. Noel Garcia, Port Authority Chairman, said he had no problems with the Port transformation. He thinks that it is good for the Port to have a “harmonious mix” of development. According to the plans as laid out by UDeCOTT it intends to transform the entire area now occupied by Sheds 1 and 2 into a Caribbean showpiece of waterfront development.

Hart told Business Day that the seven plus acres which now house the Cruise Ship Complex, Sheds 1 and 2, the popular eatery — The Breakfast Shed, and the holding area for hundreds of Roll-on/Roll-off vehicles coming into the country, would all be making way for a spanking new quayside development that could become the envy of every other Caribbean port. According to Hart, the core elements of the project include a building to house the headquarters of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) and offices of other international organisations, which could include the United Nations as well as the headquarters of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) if Trinidad and Tobago is successful in winning the race for the HQ site.

The developed site would also have office towers, a four or five star hotel run by a respected chain, a conference complex containing exhibition space, pre-function rooms, translation booths and modern media facilities. Also planned are an auditorium/performing arts theatre, an amphitheatre, retail shopping village, public offices catering to the cruise ship business and car parking facilities. “The Breakfast Shed will be relocated,” explained Hart. So while the cruise ships will still dock at the present site (Sheds 1 and 2), the aesthetics would be far different in a few years, once this project gets underway. The large warehouse type buildings, which have dotted the Port-of-Spain docks since the colonial days, will give way to modern buildings constructed in the mould of 21st century architecture.