Stalled financing for an international arbitration centre in Hamilton should have been reckoned with before the plans to build the facility got announced two years ago, the Opposition has charged.

Craig Cannonier, the Shadow Minister of Works and Engineering, queried the logic of proposed extra tenants for the premises of the Ottiwell A Simmons International Arbitration Centre, announced in July 2020 by Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch, the Minister of Public Works, but still not built.

Colonel Burch told The Royal Gazette last week that the site, which includes the former location of the former Hamilton Police Station, could need other occupants to cover the cost of its construction under a proposed public-private partnership with Milhouse Engineering & Construction, based in Chicago.

Colonel Burch has repeatedly singled out financing as the final hurdle in going ahead with building the centre — which is to be named after the trade unionist and former Progressive Labour Party MP Mr Simmons.

The minister said in 2021 that renting to buy was the best option for realising the PPP, adding: “The developer will pay and build the building and the Government will rent it back over a number of years in order for them to get their money back.”

Last week Colonel Burch indicated that extra tenants of the new building could be other government departments.

Mr Cannonier responded last night: “It comes as no surprise to me that the building of the proposed arbitration centre is now facing financial challenges.

“When it was initially announced, the people of Bermuda were told that it would not be built at the taxpayers’ expense, as it would be a result of a public-private partnership, proposed by Chicago-based Milhouse Engineering & Construction Inc.”

Mr Cannonier said the idea of government offices sharing space in the new facility ran against claims that taxpayers would not be on the hook.

“Which one is it?” he added. “Seems like minister Burch is talking in doublespeak.”

He took aim at the PLP over the Grand Atlantic affordable housing development on the South Shore in Warwick, which failed to win over would-be homeowners ten years ago and is now being repurposed as an hotel resort.

Mr Cannonier said the housing project was “still costing us severely”.

“It was built as a low-cost housing project and failed miserably, costing the taxpayers approximately $42 million.

“After all these years it's most likely doubled in cost. The only light on that dark cloud is that it was rented by the America’s Cup contingent.”

Sailors for the 2017 America’s Cup moved into the accommodation under a deal with the Bermuda Housing Corporation, announced in 2015, when a single block of units was given over as temporary housing.

While Colonel Burch said the arbitration centre project still had the backing of Millhouse Engineering & Construction, Mr Cannonier highlighted that the challenges going ahead appeared to boil down to “the size of the lot and funding, essentially”.

He added: “Frankly these concerns should have been raised before the building begun, not two years down the road.”