By Andre Bagoo Friday, April 25 2008

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HOTEL SITE?: Work at the southeast section of the Port-of-Spain National Academy for the Performing Arts was slow yesterday. Plans for a 60-room hotel...

WORK on the construction of a proposed 60-room hotel at the Princes Buildings Grounds site in Port-of-Spain began since March 13 this year when Chinese workers fenced in the site of the Colonial Club tennis club, which is annexed to the National Museum.

The Colonial Club is a private members club which has been a tenant of the National Museum for more than 80 years. It operated three clay courts, on property right next to the museum at Keate Street. The courts were separate and apart from the public courts which were under the control of the Port-of-Spain City Corporation. Diego Martin West MP Keith Rowley is said to be a one-time member of the club.

That a hotel is to be located on the site became news to the public when Rowley raised concerns on Wednesday, hours after being fired as Trade and Industry Minister, about its construction as part of the Port-of-Spain National Academy for the Performing Arts project. The Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott) is the project manager for the hotel and academy. The Udecott website lists a hotel as part of the academy project.

Some members of the public who once used the clay courts had also raised concerns when work began on the courts but they did not know the area was being cleared for a hotel.

Yesterday, work on the main structure was at a stand-still and as members of the press approached a door on the site, an unnamed official ordered security to, “make sure that this door is secure. Nobody is supposed to enter unless they have gone through some sort of procedure.”

One worker was spotted on the site and activity had halted until after lunch. Of all the people questioned around the Princes Building site, which is a block surrounded by Keate Street, Chancery Street, Frederick Street and the Queen’s Park Savannah, none said they had ever heard of plans for a hotel to be built at the site of the Colonial Club, which is to the southeast of the main construction.

Work on the site adjoining the National Museum was at a standstill yesterday, with nothing but steel beams and construction materials. But Udecott said yesterday that work on the overall site continued as usual.

According to Shirley Kelsick, 77, a former president of the Colonial Club, Chinese workers moved in on the site since March 13 fencing it in. After protesting that their courts were not part of the academy’s site, the fencing was removed. Udecott officials that day told the club’s members that an error had occurred.

“But three weeks later they started to board-up the site again,” she said. The members were not given an opportunity to salvage anything at the site including a club house with drinks, trophies, files, gardening equipment, water tanks and lighting equipment.