RISING FROM THE ASHES

Saturday’s major fire, which gutted many business places in downtown Port-of-Spain, including the People’s Mall, would have been traumatic to the owners, employees and customers and others who would normally pass through the area. Nonetheless, despite this it has given several of the capital city’s leading businessmen and Udecott the opportunity to design and construct completely modern 21st century shopping centres, which along with service oriented employees, may be able to woo former customers back from suburban malls and attract them once again to the city.

In turn, the rebuilding of the area will mean hundreds of job opportunities for architects, engineers, draughtsmen, masons, carpenters, bricklayers, back hoe operators, steelbenders, roofers, pipe fitters, electricians, steel fabricators, and security guards. Additionally, hardware stores, food vendors and mobile phone providers will be beneficiaries. Meanwhile, to achieve the wooing of mall customers, however, in addition to what was stated earlier, there will need to be multi-storeyed parking for vehicles either close by or within the boundaries of the fire hit area to facilitate the scores of car owning shoppers who today head out to urban and suburban malls, whose relatively large car parks have made it very convenient for them. 

This will mean that more money will be turned around within the Port-of-Spain economy.  A spin off will be that shoppers, not limiting themselves to the reconstructed area, will also patronise nearby stores and restaurants. But critical to the winning of new patronage by businesses which will be occupying the reconstructed area of downtown Port-of-Spain will be the behaviour patterns of some of the businessmen/women, who will be at the multi-storeyed building, housing the People’s Mall.  Already, the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago [Udecott] has been instructed to expedite plans for the building’s construction.

The reportedly dark goings-on of some of the owner-operators of several of the businesses at the People’s Mall over the years and up to the time of the fire made many would be shoppers and passers-by uncomfortable. These safeguards are necessary if potential customers are not to be encouraged by inappropriate behaviour of mall owners/operators to shy away, not merely from patronising the rebuilt People’s Mall, but any of the surrounding businesses as well which will occupy   reconstructed buildings in close proximity.