The Limegrove Lifestyle Centre, which is to be completed at a cost of around US$50 million, is set to open on December 15.
Developer Paul Altman of Altman Real Estate gave senior officials of the Ministry of Tourism and the Barbados Tourism Authority a progress report during a tour of the Holetown, St James development yesterday.
He said 80 per cent of construction would be completed by that time, while the Louis Vuitton building was expected to be completed in a year’s time.
Altman added that the facility would have about 100 different retail operations of different sizes.
It will also include a market centre.
“Speightstown is known for vendors and we felt that to give this place a true character feeling that we needed to have that invitation to local vendors.
“So we’re creating a little area which is a vendors market, which when people drive in to this place or when they leave, they’ll be able to stop by and buy vegetables or fruits,” Altman said.
He said Limegrove offered Barbadians “something that they’ve never had in Barbados before”.
“It is a mixed-use development. It is a venue where we expect people will come to visit and to use for the purpose of just liming.
“We even have a place where you can leave your children . . . ,” Altman noted.
The real estate agent said the project was hampered to some extent by the recession.
“We have about ten different investors in here and we’re lucky we got those investors before this recession,” he noted.
He stressed that rent at Limegrove was not extremely high.
“The rent is very consistent with this type of product in Barbados and in fact we have shown that it is less than some of our competitors not only on the West Coast or in Bridgetown but on the South Coast as well,” he said.
The developer also revealed that the first residential show unit would be furnished in time for the winter season.
Describing the residences as “the first townhouses to be built in a town” in Barbados, he said finishing touches were being placed on the first eight out of a possible 56 units.
Each offers 3 400 square feet of space including 16-foot ceilings.
Altman said these housing solutions were “the follow-on part of the project”.
“We will develop that because of the success of the commercial development,” he said. (NB)
