More than a month ahead of its proposed opening, MovieTowne Guyana is already giving us a glimpse of its future impact on that country’s economy. Hundreds turned out to the new entertainment and shopping complex in Turkeyen, Georgetown for career days hosted on January 8th and 9th. They were seeking to fill positions in cinema operations, food and beverage, and maintenance. MovieTowne Chairman, Mr Derek Chin, says his operations alone will account for 160 positions and, when fully tenanted, the complex will provide employment for over 2200 people.
With a price tag of US $50 million, MovieTowne is the largest private sector investment project in Guyana and has proven to be quite a challenge for Chin. It started in 2004 when Chin was asked if he would consider opening something like MovieTowne in Guyana. Chin thought the prospect was intriguing and visited Guyana for the first time since he and his family left for Trinidad in 1964.
By 2005–2006, a ten-acre parcel was obtained in Georgetown. Chin, at the time frustrated by bureaucratic delays for his Streets of the World project in Trinidad, decided to allocate the time and the money set aside for that project to MovieTowne Guyana. Unlike his experience in Trinidad building the first MovieTowne in under a year, the Guyana development has had to overcome a number of challenges and delays. The sheer scale of the project was unlike anything ever undertaken by a private developer in that country.
Basic requirements like scaffolding were not available locally in the amounts required, which led to importation and delays. A stickler for quality and deadlines, Chin says he had to make several executive decisions to expedite the project, some easy and some hard, but completion to his standard of excellence was paramount.
Now, with the opening of the complex on the immediate horizon, and with Guyana on the verge of an energy boom, Chin isn’t looking back. As usual, he’s looking forward to what the future holds in Guyana and already planning further projects. “We’re opening, but that’s just the start,” he says. “I have a bid in for land already and we’re going to have executive office towers, a hotel and many other exciting attractions.”
He’s also planning for his state-of-the-art facility to bring Georgetown to life. Already he’s envisioning events being staged at MovieTowne, such as pre-carnival shows featuring soca artistes, to create the buzz necessary to draw the crowds. With the prospect of an influx of expats and increased affluence fuelled by the growing energy sector, Chin says he hopes to transform Georgetown’s landscape from a relatively sleepy town to one that offers a variety of world-class shopping, dining and entertainment possibilities in one location. All just in time for an economic boom he had no idea would happen when he started the project.
Chin is not a man who has a finish line like the rest of us. His is always several steps, if not miles, ahead of his next completion date. With businesses in both Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, and plans to expand the MovieTowne to other parts of the Caribbean, Chin dreams of true regional integration. “We need as a region to build strength with trade and markets. How do we come together as a unique people? If the West Indies was together, we’d be a force to be reckoned with.”
Source:
https://www.trinidadexpress.com/press-r ... a1b4b.html
