Build a university downtown - Azan
Published:Saturday | January 8, 2011 | 12:00 AM
... Businessman wants university to replace prison
THE ESTABLISHMENT of a university campus on the current site of the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre heads a raft of proposals being mooted by businessman Gassan Azan to assist in redeveloping the downtown Kingston commercial district.
"By removing the prison, we would eliminate a good part of the criminal-related traffic, and with the establishment of a university campus, thousands of workers and students who live downtown or in the dormitory communities of Portmore could access tertiary education much easier," suggested Azan.
He said while he would not claim originality for the ideas, they had his full support for consideration.
Azan is of the view that the resulting late-evening traffic from students pouring out of the downtown university would keep businesses open and start bringing life to the capital city after six in the evening.
In addition to Bashco, the businessman recently made another major investment in downtown with the opening of the Sweet Tings bakery on the site of the traditional Wray and Nephew corner bars, which once dotted the Kingston landscape.
Azan said he acquired the building years ago, renovated and operated it as one of its Bashco outlets until recently when the location became the germ of the new idea to establish a state-of-the-art retail bakery facility in Jamaica.
"In transforming the site, we have kept the traditional look of old Kingston on the exterior, which has given the entire square a face-lift, and in the process, created 30 new jobs," Azan disclosed.
Sustained project
He suggested that a sustained project to clean and maintain the Kingston Harbour in a manner befitting of the finest harbours in the world could help to bring economic renewal downtown as economic enterprises could be created in this environment.
"All these projects would require investment, and every administration finds money for what it considers to be its priorities," Azan asserted.
He called on the Government to lead by example.
"Despite the expressed desire to move Government offices back downtown, the Government continues to pay billions in rent for offices uptown, while buildings owned by Government remains empty," he charged.