Soyi­ni Grey

Movi­etowne chair­man Derek Chin says he is ful­ly sup­port­ive of plans to re­vi­talise east Port-of-Spain.

Chin’s ini­tial cri­tique of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s an­nounce­ment of the Spot­light Ini­tia­tive on the Re­ju­ve­na­tion of the City Project was head­lined in an­oth­er news­pa­per as a “pipe dream”. But Chin says his con­cern is that de­vel­op­ment is not pret­ty build­ings.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia via zoom, from his Movi­eTowne board­room, Chin made ref­er­ence to his own “Cities of the World” pro­pos­al. He said the de­vel­op­ers of the city need to think­ing about turn­ing a vis­it to Port-of-Spain in­to an at­trac­tion.

“Just like every coun­try, and every city have things they are known for, Or­lan­do is known for Dis­ney. San An­to­nio is known for its river­walk, Bour­bon Street in New Or­leans and so on.”

He said Port-of-Spain need to of­fer peo­ple a rea­son to vis­it out­side of busi­ness and shop­ping.

He says his Cities of the World pro­pos­al was meant to do that for his Movi­eTowne Port-of-Spain lo­ca­tion. It would have cre­at­ed a place for peo­ple to vis­it the cap­i­tal city, and had the po­ten­tial to of­fer Trinidad and To­ba­go an­oth­er ma­jor lo­ca­tion or event for tourists.

While he said he no longer has the en­er­gy to push his pro­pos­al, he is hap­py that the Prime Min­is­ter’s an­nounce­ment has peo­ple talk­ing about the re-de­vel­op­ment of the cap­i­tal city.