The old Government Administration Building.
PHILIPSBURG--The demolishing of the former Government Administration Building which was extensively damaged during the passing of Hurricane Irma in 2017 is currently in the “evaluation stage”.
Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Egbert Doran provided the update in response to a question during the live Council of Ministers press briefing on Wednesday.
“The demolition of the old government building – that is also in the evaluation stage. That is currently being evaluated in order to have it awarded to whoever wins,” Doran said.
In July of this year, when he provided an update on the same topic, Doran had said: “We had a tender that took place a couple of weeks ago, however, we are busy now in the discussions and how to move forward with it. As I mentioned, tenders are a very hot topic these days and I want to make sure that every rock is turned over and everything is done correctly so that we can avoid situations where mistakes are made again,” Doran said at that time.
On Wednesday, Doran also updated on the plans to establish parking at the location of the former Postal Services St. Maarten (PSS) building on the Walter Nisbeth Road (Pondfill Road). “With respect to the parking lot that is something that’s being worked on between the Ministry of General Affairs as well as the Ministry of VROMI and yes, it is our hope that will be completed within short to have access to the former post office building land in order to have parking,” Doran said on Wednesday.
Doran had told reporters in July that the paid parking is part of the temporary plans for the location. “We plan to flatten it out and have paid parking there so that the issue with parking in the Philipsburg area can be resolved for now,” Doran had said back in July of the old post office location. “Of course, the major plans ultimately include a multi-level parking garage; so that is also in the major plans,” he added at the time.
He had said back then that he would have had to wait to divulge information on the more extensive plan because “we are busy with the different stakeholders, which include Parliament, on the way forward.”
The old PSS building suffered extensive damage during the passing of Hurricane Irma in 2017.
