George Town revamp too late for many businesses
(CNS): After years of dusty, disruptive roadworks, millions of dollars in public cash, numerous changes, delays, and the loss of several businesses, the George Town Revitalization Initiative is almost complete, according to a planning ministry release. As the end is in sight for the GTRI, which is effectively the partial repaving of three streets and the addition of some street furniture, saplings and other features, most roads in George Town’s business district are finally open.
Edward and Main Streets reopened Monday, which the release said was a “milestone”, marking the near completion of the project.
However, the costly and frustratingly long, drawn-out period, which has reportedly seen more than 55 changes to the original plans, has been too much for several small cafes and shops. Regardless of the ultimate goal of the GTRI to make the capital more pedestrian-friendly, a number of small businesses were unable to endure the years of massively reduced footfall.
It has also caused traffic chaos in the capital for the last five years. The project was delayed once again this month because of a tsunami warning. Although the warning lasted for no more than a couple of hours last weekend, it shelved the work for another week.
The release said there is still more work to do on “traffic flow improvements” after utility poles at the Shedden Road/Main Street and Edward Street/Shedden Road intersections are removed.
“The Ministry of PAHITD and GTRI appreciate the public’s patience and cooperation throughout this project,” the ministry stated in a release. “The revitalization of George Town marks a major milestone in modernising the capital, fostering a pedestrian-friendly, vibrant, and accessible town centre that supports businesses and residents alike.”
However, some believe the entire project has done nothing but add to the capital’s traffic woes, put people out of business and turned George Town into a ghost town, with major works going on over Christmas that hit shops in the area even harder than usual.
A report published Tuesday in the Cayman Compass by James Whittaker said the project was supposed to breathe life into the capital. Instead, business owners say it is choking them out, and many are seeking compensation for their loss of profit, for which they blame the mismanagement of this lengthy and disruptive project with very little benefit.
Various business owners who have clung on through the years of work and watched their business decrease by as much as 60% told Whittaker that the problem in George Town is not how it looks but the lack of parking.
According to the ministry, there are close to 15,000 concreted parking spaces in George Town, but most of them are off-limits to regular drivers and sit empty all day long. The spaces are part of inappropriate and outdated planning regulations that the government has failed to address, which require every building to have excessive amounts of parking even when the office blocks they serve have few guests.
Meanwhile, many of the retail stores and other small businesses in the centre of town barely have one parking spot each, and in recent weeks, the construction staff working on the project have even taken those spots.
Despite their complaints about the disruption, the dust, the parking issues, and their loss of business as a direct result, those who spoke to the ministry told Whittaker that they were offered no apologies and their concerns were dismissed.
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Category: development, Local News
Where are the public rest rooms and water fountains?
Camana Bay
It’s incredibly ironic and foreboding that the project designed to make GT cruise ship friendly has hurt business that depend on LOCAL business not cruise business. No cruise passengers are walking here and no locals can find parking so it’s a complete fail. Ultimately the existing shops might change out for tacky low cost T-shirt shops and dozens of caymanian businesses will be driven away. GT will never be the same again – but then again that seems to have been the intention from the start. Sorry.
Just the way PPM and Dart intended
Somehow, you may be right.
Another feather in the cap of the PPM
The two primary issues with town have been exactly the same since the day I was born almost 30 years ago:
1) Extremely limited parking
and
2) limited appeal to locals in the day with basically no appeal at night aside from a few bars and restaurants
No revitalisation effort that does not address those two issues and also involve wider rezoning of town to be commercial on the ground and residential on upper floors along with green spaces, shade and seating / permanent attractions is going to change a damn thing
The entire project was a dud from the word go
We begged, we pleaded ,please do not do this. It will be catastrophic to George Town merchants. We were met with crickets from low in government wannabes, pompous idiots and so called architects. The destruction done by their hubris is staggering.
We all knew this would be a colossal waste of public funds! Next up is the $6 million Scranton Park that will cost 8M before it’s done.
Can’t make this up. We need DOGE to come in and stop this wasteful and fraudulent spending!
Or, you could just call in Satan
Ay advice on how shopkeepers can be reimbursed for losses?
Lol
Reimbursement? Thats funny.
This is Eric Bush my fren. If they were to pay costs or reimbursement that would mean CIG was at fault in some way under Eric’s watch, and Franz wont have Eric looking like the coll-ass-al, blundering, imcompetent, wasting-govt-funds idiot that Eric is because that would then beg the question: Why has Franz not done anything about it?
Why do you think so many former Chief Officers are in the Deputy Governor’s office as special advisors and such?
hope they have more ‘solar powered’ benches….only in wonderland/cayman….zzzzzzzzzzz
Just another NRA painfully slow project. I am not sure if they are short handed our what. It’s like they show up every weeks to work on projects. Look at how long they have been working on the section of road from Hurley round about sport centre round about.
Not to mention the left lane closure on the LPH that many drivers think is a great way to get ahead of traffic and cut in at the last minute.
Just causes road rage because of selfish drivers trying to win.
Why does the “pedestrian-only” Cardinall Avenue lane, that took forever, feature hard curbing? What is that for? Kirk Freeport’s two downsized redundant stores are the only survivors along there, at best a C grade shopping draw, not worth parking for.
It is not pedestrian only.
What you saying Willis? Cardinall is pedestrian only. Only no pedestrians, nor anyone else go down there now.
The finished product is ugly as well. No shade, no parking, ugly pavers and now closed businesses. What was this all for?
Is anybody else wondering about corruption?
Massive and obvious. No need to hide it when there is no accountability.
The benefactors of this criminal scheme will surprise many but the names of these greedy political scumbags surely won’t .some sit on boards and are bagmen for the ministers whom this infrastructure clusterF@%! Is under. But don’t hold your breath no consequences nor accountability will be forthcoming only titles and accolades and financial rewards for the brethren! The unjust shall go unpunished in this extremely corrupt gangsta Lodge paradise ! Fleecing continues unabated.
look at the people behind this nonsense in cig…that will tell you everything.
there is no-one in cig or civil service with expertise or qualifications to manage this issue.
civil service is filled with poorly educated people with zero ability to tackle these issues.
if we can’t be honest and face these facts we will never be closer to a solution.
Here we go again, bashing the civil servants. Please, for the love of God! There is something called Major Works Unit. Their people are supposed to have all the relevant skills, knowledge and training for this type of thing including budgeting, procurement and deadlines! Major Works liaises with the NRA, with CUC, with Water Authority, the Chief Officers, ad nauseum. All of these projects are discussed in detail during Finance Committee. The proposals go to Parliament long before they happen. Why don’t you all blow up your MPs phones at that stage saying “NO! I do not want you to support this!” It is the absentee board members’ fault that our money gets wasted. Admit that being a voter takes too much effort for you, and stop blaming every Tom, Dick, Harry and Moon Donkey.
Nah, we Collin y’all out.
Exacto. We Collin all of unnah to Spain what exactly this is!
In the time taken to do this Cricket Square built multiple large parking lots with pavers! Why did this little bit of area take so long?
There was definitely not an equal output for the dollar input on this project. Take responsibility; stop blaming others. We all know who he is; a pink slip is appropriate.
There’s a hint of the why in the article: “…more than 55 changes to the original plans…”.
So something gets build, one of the committees doesn’t like the way it looks, it gets pulled out and re-build. Do that few times, add Covid and confusion over who is actually able to make decisions and there you go.
It wouldn’t be a government project if there wasn’t dozens of change orders and at least 50% increase to the approved budget.
How will this project bring George Town to life exactly? How does this project put food on the table for residents of GTC exactly? How does this project help with cost of living for the residents of GTC exactly? My fellow towners, if you read this, Please its time to WAKE up.
I’m convinced this has something do with whatever master plan Dart has for GT, but instead of spending his own cash, he’s using ours to get the infrastructure in place.
lol if it was dart it would be done already so its safe to say this is all the gov’s doing
Gosh, you are clueless. They got infrastructure and ‘beautification’ in to benefit ‘future businesses’ while essentially euthanizing the existing businesses – by dragging all the work out and driving those businesses into bankruptcy – clean slate. Sad that it has to be spelled out for you.
youre slow as hell if you think THATS why its slow. Name one thing the gov has done well and completed in an appropriate time. Why would dart waste time slowing that down when that has nothing to do with the amount of leases they get anyway lol youre hilarious
Millions are spent on the “Scranton Park”, meanwhile George Town is in shambles.
@ 6:48 You are correct apart from the perceived notion this so called “Scranton Park” is really the “Flowers Group Park” sometimes you have to look outside the box, especially in Politics.
This is the biggest waste of money ever. It is how Cayman does it though. Spend a fortune on concrete pavers yet not have enough parking places. Focusing on the little stuff they think is fancy before fixing the main issue – capacity. Isn’t this exactly like the airport – expensive granite in all the bathrooms but not enough places to sit.
Tough to beat the school construction.
Just make people work from home. Less traffic, lots of parking for shoppers and a better island to live in.
“making” never works
Such a practical solution yet often ignored. Not suited for everyone,but probably 50% of office workers could work from home
Tis the season for some Franzies.
That what happens when you have a donkey in charge.
Nope. Any donkey could have done a better job!
Primary things Grand Cayman needs:
1.Fix the [damn] dump; proper, modern waste management/recycling
2.Reliable, comfortable, safe public transportation.
3.Term limits on politicians
How about cutting spending? $1.1Billion is a lot.
How about new revenue measures that does not call for raising feed?
Winner. Cayman needs a Trump Musk DOGE. Eliminate wasteful spending.
And PARKING, PARKING, PARKING. And a loo.
OK great. Now remind me why, in the very unlikely event I spot somewhere to park, I would want to stop? I don’t need any diamonds or Chinese souvenirs.
There are a few really great stores it GT. Some even visited by presidents, and royals due to their unique nature. There Would be more if not for someone whose name rhymes with pollin.
Name one?
How many times does it have to happen before government realizes that free spending Civil servants should not be allowed to dabble in anything that requires planning, design, problem solving, forward thinking, budgeting , cash flow , project management and scheduling.
Businesses ruined, millions spent and the end result is a sea of brick pavers.
I remember going to a Chamber of Commerce event with a presentation from the “GT revitalisation” team on this about oh… 10 or 15 years ago. It was so laughably bad, with some improvement it could have passed for a middle school geography project. It was back when they were still talking about the turtle-themed ice rink. I guess they went with a turtle because an elephant would have been too on the nose. You should FOI it just to give everyone a good laugh.
The whole thing has been a debacle. An object lesson in government ineptitude. The sad thing is that actual revitalisation is desperately needed, we have wasted 15 long years and the next attempt by even a competent government (saywhat?) will be met with nothing but cynicism.
When all you had to do all along was raise building heights to 20 stories and let the development dollars flood in.
The turtle ice rink was the brainchild of Next Development, if I recall.
Everyone involved in this debacle needs to be suited by class action by all businesses downtown.
A complete shambles!
Place just needs to be torched. Fresh start.
all we need at the grand opening is tumbleweed blowing through the streets.
Yep you guys KILLED it . LITERALLY
Surely the people can bring a case against CIG and the Civil Service for gross mismanagement and waste!!??
Any lawyer out there want to? Please?
Lawyers only worried about fighting Permanent residency and status claims. They are mum on everything else.
We can’t even manage a “revamp” to town yet want to put a billion dollar dock for cruise ships to pull up to this clusterfk.
Weh deh ga go? Wa deh ga do? It’s evident the dock is only going to benefit the very few Caymanians (maybe 5% of the workforce) by giving more taxi fares yet we all will continue to get the end of the stick.
What a joke.
Civil servants are unable to raise the alarm on any mismanagement of funds ahead of projects being approved. If you disagree with this state of affairs, write to the Governor. Ask her to update all the laws that rule the civil service and provide your suggestions as to what should be improved or changed: GovernorsOffice.Cayman@fcdo.gov.uk Morale in the civil service is below sea level at this point (and it is not due to climate change)
It’s been an absolute mess. One day I saw tourists sitting outside Alfresco’s trying to enjoy some local food while a person 10 feet away was cutting bricks and blowing dust straight onto the table where they were eating.
They have ghettorized George Town to no end.
It is said you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, can you imagine the impression that many of our visitors left with during the past few years after visiting our capital?
However, as usual, no one will be held accountable, and the party just continues. The Government should definitely be sued.
Only one observation: Do not blame this on the PACT. They inherited this project from the previous administration. I have no objection to projects being passed from one government to another because we the tax payers want them done. We do not care which set of politricksters get it done; just finish them within the agreed budget, but it would not be fair to bash the PACT foe this particular debacle.
PACT sat there and watched it happen..
All part of a long term plan. Kaaboo site with bridge and southern part of 7mb with 2 tunnels next
It was great the way it was before. Only needed a few improvements and renovations of pedestrian paths and walkways, more available parking and roads resurfacing.
Now it’s even more restricted for vehicles and parking. These funds spent could have done so much in many other areas of George Town and projects throughout the Islands that really needed and deserved it.
20 years too late, not comprehensive enough, and done in the worst possible way. Solid F- effort.
Fire the architect, designers, project managers and the entire ministry of planning leadership. We cannot continue to give these people the responsibility to waste funds and further destroy Cayman
Just fire? Gross incompetence must have legal consequences.
There is no “Architect”. There’s someone there who calls himself architect.
As for”designer” , that’s another who was useless at planning.
“project manager” PWD employee who fills a desk.
Accountability…? Ask Eric .
Totally agree that parking is a key issue with GT.
But nothing has been done on that. May we politely ask why?
You are wrong!!!!
We lost 15 parking spots next to the AL Thompson Building.
More evidence why Cayman cannot agree to the cruise berthing project which will no doubt costs the public hundreds of millions not including the inevitable costs overruns! VOTE NO CAYMAN
Franz’s world class civil service with another expensive mess!
And within 3 months after “completion”, NRA and the WAC will dig up some of it for something they “forgot”
Total LaLa-Land
The only improvement GT needed was parking!
Eric has done it again for Dart. Eric has caused the many delays and extensions to this project, which has led to the frustration of the many businesses in GT.
Now that the businesses are closing down, the land and buildings can be purchased cheap by Dart.
Way to go Eric!
All this going on and we are paying for it! I want to beautify Red Spot Beach as best I can and then put it in a trust for all to enjoy not just for the benefit of the fishmongers. It will cost CIG nothing. Where else in the world can you not give property away? You and I know if this is controlled by government it will be a disaster. Just look at the Smatts land that Bryan purchased well over 4 years ago. What has he done? NOTHING.
This government is an unmitigated disaster.
I hope you are able, ultimately, to execute your plans for Red Spot Beach, Chris.
Thank you for showing us that you truly care and keep up the fight. We appreciate you, sir.
Robinson Corruption ooops construction I meant to say.the minister’s Consigliere is flush with $$$ buying and building complexes from GT to Newlands!
Another private sector company fails and blames the government for wasting money. Government should stop using private sector companies. The incompetence and rip off mentality is astounding.
We know that private sector companies get together and increase their bids on government projects. Shame on all of you.
You have to increase your bid to account for the inevitable time-wasting and reputational damage. You can’t blame the private sector for this mess. It was the government that scoped and priced the project, selected them and signed the contract that created this mess.
Abusive too!
yea you are full of crap not nowing anything you are speaking of. contactors are guided and instructed by clients and their request and redesigns
Appears you are the same!
The GT revitalization project is a warning to all of us about how Cayman’s politician’s and civil service cannot manage their way out of a paper bag.
Rather than look at the core problems of parking and improving traffic flow on an island with more and more cars, they started a vanity project which has cost us all millions of dollars, taken years and will end up making Georgetown worse off.
They closed off one of the capital’s main thoroughfares, Cardinal Avenue, which played an important role in moving traffic away from the water front and through town, especially at busy times.
And then they decided to mess up the post office junction which seemed to be work just fine. They have been working on this junction for about 18 months – why?
We need a different approach to every project that politicians approve in Cayman. Every time they are asked to approve something they need to ask themselves 1 question:
– If I had to pay for this project out of my own savings would I approve it? Especially if I was only going to be paid back if the project was successful.
Whether it is a school in the Brac for 200 kids, costing $75m or the GT revitilsation project every government project should start with this question.
Not to mention it looks ugly and dated. Looks like the outside of a mall in the mid 90s. What a waste.
Thick and corrupt in a nutshell.
Remember this when it comes time to vote, Cayman. PLEASE……
That school will end up costing double. No govt major project is completed within budget and yes 75M is insane!
This fraud has gone on long enough follow the money and the kickbacks to certain political henchmen and donors new government need to look into this and hold those responsible for this utter bullshit! businesses need to sued them too.
People need to be arrested and prosecuted and when found guilty, jailed! Its really as simple as that. The entire swamp needs to be drained.
We should rename Cardinall Ave, Kenny Bee Blvd
Remember this when it comes time to vote, Cayman. PLEASE…. Our time to judge is coming…
55 changes to the original plans, and no Wishing Well has been added. Craziness!
Apart from the stifling heat, heavy rains, lack of parking, ugly buildings, and cars still everwhere you look, this pedestrian zone is going to work out just great! (this is full-on sarcasm mode, by the way. Like, maximum sarcasm levels)
Did anyone get Vaseline on this one or were we all royally…..
….screwed!