MONTEGO BAY, St James – The Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) was yesterday instructed to immediately provide $1.6 million to repair the Old Fort and Harbour Street craft markets, which were both damaged by electrical fires recently.

Yesterday, Dr Wykeham McNiel, the state minister in the Ministry of Tourism, accompanied by TPDCo representatives, Member of Parliament for North-West St James Dr Horace Chang and PNP constituency caretaker Henry McCurdy, toured the Harbour Street facility where fire destroyed six craft shops last week and caused extensive water and smoke damage to craft items belonging to vendors.

“What we have done is an assessment of what it will take to correct the damage that was caused by the fire,” Dr McNeil said after yesterday’s tour. “So in the first case the assessment shows that we will need $400,000 for the Harbour Street Craft Market and approximately $1.2 million for the Old Fort craft market.”

The Old Fort Craft Market was ravaged by fire earlier this year.

Yesterday, Dr McNeil said he had instructed the TPDCo “to put in place the necessary funds so that we can commence work to get the markets back in place as quickly as possible so that we don’t have any disruption of business”.

The junior tourism minister said, too, that the board of the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) would also provide assistance to the affected craft vendors in the form of an advance through a revolving loan scheme.

“…For those that were totally wiped out, [they will get] the sum of $50,000 so that they can buy back their things and repurchase whatever they need and get back into business,” Dr McNeil said, adding that those who suffered water damage would qualify for loans in the amount of $30,000, while others whose goods were affected by smoke would be able to borrow $20,000.

But McNeil’s announcement of the loan assistance was met with disappointment by president of the Harbour Street Craft Market, Melody Haughton.

“I am not really happy because you know our original cry. we don’t get as much business that we supposed to get and I am afraid that [when we] get the loans and the business doesn’t turn up and we don’t pay it back, and then we become delinquent,” she said.

Meanwhile, Barrington Payne, acting executive director of TPDCo noted that the rehabilitation of the burnt-out shops would take place in the next five weeks.

He also said TPDCo would this week begin inviting tenders to undertake comprehensive work valued at some $30 million to upgrade the physical structure of both facilities.

“…And we expect the entire tender process to take approximately 10 weeks,” he added. “We expect comprehensive work to commence sometime in July at both the Harbour Street and Old Fort,” he said.

According to Payne, $19 million has been approved for the upgrading of the Harbour Street Craft Market and $11 million for the Old Fort Street building.