PM Announces Progress on Arnos Vale City Project
With the St. Vincent government declaring that they had approved moving forward with the policy for the creation of the plans for the Arnos Vale modern city, the new metropolis has once again grabbed centre stage.
In December 2021, finance minister Camilo Gonsalves, while speaking on WEFM, stated that the government was well along in terms of the master plan for the city at Arnos Vale.
Last week, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves announced that the procurement board would award a contract to the entity this week to begin the design.
In July 2017, Gonsalves stated that the government had engaged technical personnel from (UNOPS) United Nations Operations about preliminary work on the new city at Arnos Vale.
In February of 2017, Derek Chin, Chairman of the Trinidad-based company Movie Towne Cineplex, who should have been part of the private sector development at Arnos Vale, told the Agency for Public Information in an interview that his investment would change the landscape; that project never got off the ground.
Gonsalves last week stated that there is already a broad concept for the city.
“what had happened. We had invited designs, and there were three designs; one and two were the preferred designs. We put it out for national, regional, and international persons to compete. We said we like one and two. Well, not the cabinet, but the cabinet was advised by a technical committee. And we asked both one and two designers, in a sense to merge them, because there were aspects of each design which were very desirable according to the technical advice which we have received.”
Gonsalves said the design will begin this year, and individuals will see some activities this year and into next year (2026).
“You know, designing a new city is a complicated business. We have elements, like, for instance, the acute care hospital, which is an important anchor in the new city. So to the sporting facilities”.
In December 2021, finance minister Camilo Gonsalves stated that Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves (on Sunday, 12 December) met with several investors from the Middle East interested in funding elements of the modern city design.
In December 2021, the younger Gonsalves also reported that a committee had briefed the cabinet on three competing designs for the modern city.
Gonsalves back then said some of the designs had left the old runway intact, whereas others have built over it with residential, commercial and roadways, etc.
“Some of them have seen the beachfront area as a boardwalk-type facility where people can walk from the area called the dump, across the front of the beach and up along the river until you get back to the main road where a gentleman is selling coconuts in front of Karibbean Tyres,” Gonsalves said then.
Gonsalves also said they wanted the committee’s approval to post the competing designs online for the public to see.
Prime Minister Gonsalves did not indicate when he spoke on the matter last week if the designs presented were those from 2021 that the finance minister had spoken of.
In February of 2024, it was noted that phase two of the concept drawings for the new Arnos Vale city were being presented to the government.
At that time, Minister of Urban Development Benarva Browne provided an update on the progress, stating that the government had reached a stage where submissions for the second round of the design competition for the city had been received.
“These designs will be presented to a panel, as they have in the past, and the winner will be announced, and that company will then proceed to develop the plans for Arnos Vale formally. So that is when you will see more consultants on the ground and more individuals approaching you about the city’s future,” the minister stated in 2024.
“So it’s been a process of selecting people, officials, and even private sector people to speak with. These concept ideas would be refined, and then there would be more consultation and input into the creation of the plans and what would become the final plan for Arnos Vale,” Browne had stated.
The Unity Labour Party, in their 2015 election manifesto, said part of their plans for the term 2015-2020 would be the start-up of a modern city at the former E.T. Joshua Airport, consequent upon the commencement of operations at Argyle International Airport.
The defunct E.T. Joshua airport’s 63 acres are located 10 minutes outside of Kingstown.
