Sale price of Cancer Center drops from $15M to now $6-9M dollars

The price for the sale of the Cancer Center has dropped significantly after new evaluations found that the medical facility should be solved between $6 and USD 9 million, compared to the USD 15 million proposed by the owner

The Cabinet held discussions on the acquisition of the Cancer Center Wednesday and said that the new cost reflects the valuation undertaken by the government’s Valuation Officer

“While the owner was demanding USD 15 million; the valuation concluded that it is valued between $6 and $9 million EC Dollars. The land on which the Cancer Centre is built is the Crown’s”, according to Chief of Staff in the Prime Ministers’ Office Lionel Max Hurst

Hurst said the Centre has also incurred a liability of $6.9 EC Million and should the Government acquire, there would be a need for both personnel and additional equipment.

“Nurses with the expertise are available and there are two doctors available to operate there; they are all ready to begin. All the equipment has depreciated and would have to be separately assessed,” he said

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Cabinet also invited the owner of a rented office building in St. John’s which they said has remained unoccupied since the time of the past administration.

Hurst said in the Cabinet notes that the former CIBC building, situated at the corner of High Street and Corn Alley, owned by the Antiguan businessman, had been rented by the former administration and gutted but unused.

“Nothing more was done until 2014 when an agreement was entered into with the new Gaston Browne Administration to acquire the building by way of unpaid taxes and other unmet obligations. The owner reneged. He has now returned to the Cabinet with a further proposal to exchange land which he owns elsewhere for a crown land with an oceanfront”, he said

The decision on the old building is put off for one week.