With the launch of JT Al­lum and Com­pa­ny's $500 mil­lion C3 Cen­tre at Corinth, a ma­jor con­struc­tion boom is un­der way in south Trinidad. The project, set for com­ple­tion in 2015, is in ad­di­tion to the on­go­ing con­struc­tion of the $7.5 bil­lion San Fer­nan­do to Point Fortin high­way ex­ten­sion and the soon-to-be­gin San Fer­nan­do Wa­ter­front project.

On Thurs­day, Plan­ning and Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Dr Bhoen­dra­datt Tewarie joined JT Al­lum ex­ec­u­tives, in­clud­ing man­ag­ing di­rec­tor Christo­pher Mack, to turn the sod for the mul­ti-mil­lion-dol­lar project. He com­mend­ed the JT Al­lum com­pa­ny for its in­vest­ment in the shop­ping and en­ter­tain­ment com­plex.

"This con­tri­bu­tion here by the Mack fam­i­ly is ap­pre­ci­at­ed. The lo­cal con­tent, the boost in labour in con­struc­tion, as well as per­ma­nent jobs and the en­light­ened green prac­tices are much ap­pre­ci­at­ed," Tewarie said.He said JT Al­lum and Com­pa­ny, which cel­e­brates its 70th an­niver­sary this year, "has been syn­ony­mous with strong busi­ness ethics and has gen­er­at­ed suc­cess­ful op­er­a­tions in the su­per­mar­ket and re­al es­tate in­dus­tries over the years."

The com­pa­ny, in­cor­po­rat­ed in 1943, was found­ed by Hum­ming Bird Gold re­cip­i­ent Carl­ton Mack, an im­mi­grant from Chi­na. It is now man­aged by sec­ond and third gen­er­a­tion mem­bers of the San Fer­nan­do fam­i­ly.Tewarie said the fact that the $500m in­vest­ment was com­ing from the lo­cal pri­vate sec­tor demon­strates con­fi­dence in the strength of the econ­o­my.

Mack, speak­ing at the sod-turn­ing cer­e­mo­ny, said the C3 Cen­tre will be an­chored by main ten­ants JTA Su­per­mar­ket and Movi­eTowne Cine­plex, and is ex­pect­ed to be com­plet­ed by 2015.He said the fa­cil­i­ty will fea­ture en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly-friend­ly ini­tia­tives such as ex­ten­sive wa­ter-re­ten­tion ponds to re­cy­cle rain wa­ter, use of nat­ur­al gas, so­lar pan­els and ex­pan­sive sky­lights to save en­er­gy.

"It has been three years in the mak­ing. We are very, very hap­py that we have got­ten to this stage. We are ex­cit­ed that this de­vel­op­ment is un­der way. I think it is a game chang­er for the south," Mack said.He said Movi­eTowne will open an eight-screen cine­plex and the new JTA Su­per­mar­ket, which is owned by the Mack fam­i­ly. This will be the fifth branch for the lo­cal su­per­mar­ket chain.

"With al­most 600,000 square feet of build­ing space on over 20 acres of land, C3 Cen­tre will de­liv­er a unique shop­ping and en­ter­tain­ment ex­pe­ri­ence to the south­land that will be the en­vy of the oth­er malls in the coun­try," Mack said.He said the C3 Cen­tre will al­so of­fer oth­er forms of en­ter­tain­ment, in­clud­ing a branch of US fast-food chain, Chuck-E-Cheese's which he de­scribed as a new and ex­cit­ing chil­drens' en­ter­tain­ment des­ti­na­tion for pre-teens.

There will al­so be a Galac­ti­ca out­let pro­vid­ing en­ter­tain­ment for old­er chil­dren, as well as a wide ar­ray of shop­ping in a ful­ly air-con­di­tioned re­tail mall with a se­lec­tion of ca­su­al din­ing restau­rants.Mack said the lo­ca­tion will be con­ve­nient as it is just me­tres from the Sir Solomon Ho­choy High­way and the high­way ex­ten­sion to Point Fortin.