January 2017 | Business View Caribbean

44 45 Government also vested lands in the Interna- tional Airport Development Company (IADC) to provide a source of funds for the construction of an international airport at Argyle. The part- nering of NPL and IADC in the proper and planned development and sale of jointly-owned landwas a logical outcome. To date,National Properties has developed land at three sites on the Grenadine island of Bequiawith roads and underground in- frastructure for electricity,telephone,and television services for the sale of some 170 lots,ranging in size from11,000 to 30,000 square feet for residential purposes. Much of the proceeds from the sale of residential lots,to date,went to IADCto help the cost of the international airport construction. The newArgyle International Airport is sched- uled to open in February, 2017. “When that air- port commences, our old airport at Arnos Vale is going to be decommissioned and the land has been vested in National Properties,”Dougan says. “It is the policy of the Government to develop this old airport site as a planned,modern, upscale ex- tension of the capital city of Kingstown when this happens. It will involve a tunnel under the Cane Garden promontory that connects the Arnos Vale site directly to the capital. Our master planners think the tunnel will add to the synergy of the two parts of the city. That is a project that we think is a very active one.” Possible uses for the ArnosVale property include: n Acruise line boarding point or tourist ferryport, and perhaps a seafront boardwalkand amarina n High quality shopping mall facilities along the Rodney Bay lines, other retail development concepts and multiplex cinemas n Good quality Government offices and/or a modern new hospital n High-value apartments and condominiums NATIONAL PROPERTIES LIMITED n Amajor quality hotel n Parking facilities,maybe even serving Kingstown as well. Up until now,National Properties has been spearheading ini- tiatives to redevelop the E.T. Joshua Airport site. In the mean- time though, a government-owned company, the Arnos Vale Devel- opment Co. Ltd.,has been formed tomanage the redevelopment. In due course,this companywill be staffed and housed andwill assume full responsibility for carrying out its functions as it sees fit and in line with itsmandate. Not all properties that came under the ownership of Nation- al Properties came to it via the government. The relationship between National Properties Ltd. and Bank of St. Vincent and the Grenadines goes far back. When it was the Nation- al Commercial Bank (NCB), this institution offered the sale of its branch properties to National Properties on the grounds that it was being required by the East Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) to sell off some of its properties since it had too much of its as- sets in real estate. These prop- erties were bought by National Properties. When, in 2010, by which time their circumstanc- es had changed, and still prior to their becoming Bank of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (BOSVG), this institution wished to buy back the properties, with the exception of the Reigate property on which NPL was constructing a major building. NPL agreed, and the buyback was completed. The Reigate building, originally conceived for multi-occupancy, morphed, with the passage of its construc- tion and under a multiplicity of