In­nis Fran­cis

San Fer­nan­do busi­ness­man Derek Smith opened the doors of a third ho­tel in San Fer­nan­do last Thurs­day. His newest ven­ture is the Le Blankenn Vil­las at Hu­bert Rance Street, San Fer­nan­do over­look­ing the Gulf of Paria.

Smith’s lat­est is the con­ver­sion of two ad­ja­cent three-bed­room hous­es, owned by his par­ents, in­to a prop­er­ty com­pris­ing 22 bed­room and 23 bath­rooms. The project was com­plet­ed at a cost of $2.5 mil­lion and the re­fur­bish­ment took 16 months.

The ho­tel was opened in a sim­ple rib­bon-cut­ting cer­e­mo­ny with Smith’s im­me­di­ate fam­i­ly, his neigh­bours, Min­is­ter of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment and MP for San Fer­nan­do West, Faris Al-Rawi, San Fer­nan­do May­or Robert Par­ris, and pres­i­dent of the Greater San Fer­nan­do Area Cham­ber of Com­merce Ki­ran Singh.

Smith said he promised his par­ents to re­struc­ture the 90-year-old build­ings in­to a prop­er­ty that would ac­com­mo­date pay­ing guests.

He said the new­ly opened es­tab­lish­ment would serve fam­i­lies of on­col­o­gy, heart and kid­ney pa­tients us­ing the South­ern Med­ical Cen­tre. This would in­clude peo­ple from the East­ern Caribbean.

Smith start­ed his busi­ness ca­reer with a se­cu­ri­ty com­pa­ny and lat­er branched out in­to vin­tage cars, a restau­rant and bar and ho­tels. He em­ploys a to­tal of 700 work­ers and the es­tab­lish­ment of the new ho­tel is his way of en­sur­ing all re­mained em­ployed.

Smith said the name La Blankenn was a com­bi­na­tion of both his par­ents; Blanche and Ken­neth.

“I learned a lot and I re­alise that health and tourism are some­thing that we do not pay too much at­ten­tion to,” said the en­tre­pre­neur.

De­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress, Al-Rawi an­nounced plans for the de­vel­op­ment of King’s Wharf and the wider San Fer­nan­do in­clud­ing High Street, Har­ris Prom­e­nade, and Li­brary Cor­ner.

Al-Rawi said San Fer­nan­di­ans can look for­ward in two months to see work re­sume at the wa­ter­front in­clud­ing a “loop sys­tems.”

“Part of what I want­ed for the City of San Fer­nan­do was to dri­ve its de­vel­op­ment, which is why my heart and soul went in­to the de­vel­op­ment. I found it in­tol­er­a­ble and un­ac­cept­able that 14 acres of prime land was a bus shed and an­oth­er five acres could just be for derelict build­ings or that the Wharf meant dark­ness, and in­se­cu­ri­ty. It was just hor­ri­ble!

“That’s the King’s Wharf that you are over­look­ing, and in a cou­ple of months, 3.6 hectares of land would be re­claimed. And on that point of land you would get ho­tels, de­vel­op­ment, wa­ter taxi; the har­bour of the Yacht Club and 250 high-rise Mi­a­mi Beach front apart­ments. The La Basse con­vert­ed to a land re­fill, be­cause you can’t start the Wa­ter­front with a dump.

“We re en­gi­neered the place for that pur­pose. High Street with lights and dec­o­ra­tions. (Com­muters) Park at the Wa­ter­front and run­ning a sys­tem called the Loop, run­ning from the Wa­ter­front, up High Street, down the (Har­ris) Prom­e­nade, and back to the Wa­ter­front with night­time mar­kets and shop­ping. San Fer­nan­do is now ser­viced by a loop.

“Pic­ture Li­brary Cor­ner with bill­boards look­ing just like New York’s Times Square, or Pic­cadil­ly Cir­cus. We de­signed it, we cost­ed it, and we go­ing to come and talk to the shop own­ers and com­mer­cial as­pect of San Fer­nan­do. I be­lieve that San Fer­nan­do de­serves to be de­vel­oped. I vowed to re­turn to night­time shop­ping, se­cu­ri­ty, par­ty at­mos­phere, and life.

“We have the best school, and the best med­ical cam­pus. The work we are do­ing at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal is go­ing to blow your mind. We’re tak­ing 70 per cent of that cam­pus and re­or­gan­is­ing it in­to a pri­vate sec­tor med­ical fa­cil­i­ty.”

He said Smith’s sense of busi­ness was in align­ment with the vi­sion for the de­vel­op­ment of San Fer­nan­do and a “pas­sion that is un­bri­dled” for his con­tin­ued con­tri­bu­tion to the sec­ond City’s sta­tus.

Al-Rawi said La Blankenn Vil­las is a true repli­ca out of Greece; and a bou­tique ho­tel that un­der­stands the de­mand and sup­ply of af­ford­able ac­com­mo­da­tion of the ins and outs of a re­spectable es­tab­lish­ment.

Smith’s two pre­vi­ous ho­tels are the Linx Suites at Gulf View Link Road and North Road Vil­las, lo­cat­ed on North Road in San Fer­nan­do.