When Na­tion­al Panora­ma win­ner BP Rene­gades line up along­side Trinidad All Stars, CAL Skif­fle and Fon­claire at Skin­ner Park on May 18, it will be the last per­for­mance at the 93-year-old fa­cil­i­ty for 2019.

San Fer­nan­do West MP Faris Al-Rawi an­nounced on Sun­day that the park will be closed for re­de­vel­op­ment for the rest of the year.

Speak­ing at the San Fer­nan­do West Con­stituen­cy Sports and Fam­i­ly Day, he said that the work ties in with the im­pend­ing re­de­vel­op­ment of the city’s wa­ter­front.

“We’re about to start a sig­nif­i­cant de­vel­op­ment here. This is the sec­ondary ground. On May 18, we close off Skin­ner Park and we’re go­ing to do a full-scale ren­o­va­tion to this pre­mier prop­er­ty. That ties in with our wa­ter­front de­vel­op­ment and with our hous­ing de­vel­op­ment, all of which have been pre-co­or­di­nat­ed, fi­nanc­ing arranged, etc. So it is ex­cit­ing times for San Fer­nan­do. This, hope­ful­ly by next year, will be the scene of a brand new ground, filled with San Fer­nan­di­ans, re­claim­ing our space,” Al-Rawi said.

On May 18, Spek­taku­la Pro­mo­tions will host the North/South Pan Spek­taku­la, which will al­so fea­ture Des­per­a­does and Pan El­ders Steel Or­ches­tra.

San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo said that UDe­COTT ad­ver­tised re­quest for ten­ders and a bid was ac­cept­ed. Re­grel­lo said work is ex­pect­ed to be­gin on June 1.

The work in­cludes the de­mo­li­tion of the old in­fra­struc­ture and the con­struc­tion and out­fit­ting of a new 3,000-seat three-storey stand, in­clu­sive of a new may­or’s box, cor­po­rate box­es, con­fer­ence cen­tre and gym.

The dis­man­tling and re-as­sem­bly of a 3,000 seat un­cov­ered stand to the east­ern end of the park, re­fur­bish­ment of the cy­cle track and play­ing field and the in­stal­la­tion of LED light­ing tow­ers and a dig­i­tal score­board is al­so to be done.

The project is be­ing un­der­tak­en by the Min­istry of Sport and Youth Af­fairs. While Skin­ner Park is a sports fa­cil­i­ty, it has been home to many cul­tur­al events, in­clud­ing Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta, Chut­ney So­ca Monarch and the San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee’s Ju­nior Pa­rade of the Bands.