New Year opening for $37.3m market

The temporary market at Shaw Park will be transformed into a farmers' wholesale market, as market vendors are now expected to return to their refurbished, state-of-the-art home in Scarborough in January 2020.

Addressing reporters at the weekly post-Executive Council media briefing on Wednesday at the Division of Tourism, Culture and Transportation in Sangsters Hill, Scarborough, Secretary of Food Production, Forestry and Fisheries Hayden Spencer declared the Scarborough market remodelling project completed to the tune of $37.3 million.

He said the division made the decision to delay the handing over and subsequent relocation of vendors to avoid the hassle of relocation during the busy festive season.

In July this year, Spencer said the market was supposed to be completed by the end of August 2019 with vendors to be relocated the next month. One vendor, Lutchman Persad, had told Newsday then he hoped they would stay in Shaw Park until January as "Christmas season already up on us."

It appears the division took that advice into consideration.

Spencer said, “We found it best to conduct this exercise after the anticipated busy season, during the upcoming Christmas period to avoid major disruptions of the vendors' business. January is expected to be a less busy month and would most likely allow for the smooth and seamless transition of all market operations.”

He said vendors currently operating at the temporary market can look forward to returning to a modern state-of-the-art, safe and comfortable facility.

The temporary facility currently houses 189 vendors; however, the remodelled facility will accommodate 242 vendors.

“There would be nine food stalls, butchers – 15, fish vendors – eight, haberdashery – 54, vegetable stall – 150, crab vendors – six."

Spencer said there has been a huge demand for stalls at the refurbished market but they would not be able to accommodate everyone.

“We have 102 new applications but the number of new stalls available will only be 25.”

The new market includes an administrative building to house the workers, serving as a hub for the processing for all applications for the use of the market and payment of fees, as well as obtaining general information about the facilities.

“The main vending building houses the food stalls, vegetable and provision stalls, cafés, shops, butcher stalls. Within this unit, butchers are provided with a cold storage area so that the cold chain necessary in the management of meat sales can be established. A monoline floor which will be used as a surveillance point to monitor the operations within the main building is also found inside this unit.

“A fish market, which is fully air-conditioned and will service all seafood vendors. The haberdasheries and other services section which will accommodate clothing vendors, seamstress, spa etc. We have also installed a backup generator which will ensure a continuous electricity supply to the facility. An upgraded security system, all this to the tune of $37.3 million,” the Secretary said.

The project was undertaken in July 2018 by con­trac­tor, Al­pha En­gi­neer­ing and Con­struc­tion Lt­d of Trinidad and completed within 18 months.

In Ju­ly 2018, at the sim­ple cer­e­mo­ny to sign the re­mod­el­ling con­tract, the CEO of Eco-In­dus­tri­al De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny of To­ba­go (E-ID­COT) Ltd, Lois Leslie, said the bud­get for the project was $28 mil­lion.

Al­pha En­gi­neer­ing was se­lect­ed as the con­trac­tor from among four bid­ders. Bids for the project were in­vit­ed in June 2016.