The Break­fast Shed in Port-of-Spain, al­so known as Femmes Du Chalet, has re­opened fol­low­ing an in­ter­ven­tion by for­mer gov­ern­ment min­is­ter and fi­nan­cial con­sul­tant Robert Le Hunte, who wrote sev­er­al let­ters to var­i­ous in­sti­tu­tions on be­half of ten­ants.

The Break­fast Shed ten­ants had closed their doors on Oc­to­ber 30 in a dis­pute over $1.8 mil­lion in un­paid rent and oth­er is­sues, claim­ing they were forced out of the fa­cil­i­ty.

Le Hunte had ac­cused the T&T Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) of mis­clas­si­fy­ing the fa­cil­i­ty as a medi­um-in­dus­tri­al cus­tomer (D2) in­stead of a small-in­dus­tri­al class (D1), re­sult­ing in month­ly bills of around $13,000-14,000, when, he claims, they should have been clos­er to $3,000-5,000.

The Reg­u­lat­ed In­dus­tries Com­mis­sion (RIC) is now re­view­ing the sit­u­a­tion.

Man­age­ment said sev­er­al ten­ants had failed to pay T&TEC bills and rent for the use of the fa­cil­i­ty, and some have since stopped op­er­at­ing. Cur­rent­ly, on­ly one-third of the space is rent­ed, and ef­forts are un­der­way to at­tract new clients.

T&TEC has al­so re­quest­ed that the fa­cil­i­ty be rewired. How­ev­er, be­cause the prop­er­ty is owned by UDe­COTT, that mat­ter must be han­dled by the com­pa­ny. Man­age­ment is al­so call­ing for the re­place­ment of the tar­pau­lin blinds, which have been in place since 2006.

Guardian Me­dia reached out to UDe­COTT for com­ment but did not re­ceive a re­sponse.