MovieTowne now aiming for December opening
After four years of development, the MovieTowne complex at Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara, is expected to be completed by December, and Chairman Derek Chin is looking to hire a Guyanese workforce three months prior to the planned opening.
Chin, who spoke at a signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Guyana on Thursday, said that with the MovieTowne establishment expected to be completed later this year, the company is looking to hire a local workforce that can work along with its managers.
Chin explained that MovieTowne will need about 85 to 100 persons to work in its movie theatre complex, while he estimated that another 600 persons would be employed in the mall and the shops at the location.
Chin said that apart from those, they will also have to consider hiring persons for security as well as a cooking staff, which will add to the employment population. He added that what MovieTowne is trying to create are careers for those who are looking to join them full time as well as those who are seeking part-time jobs, especially university students.
Chin told reporters that since they have seen significant interest in the complex, they have added more space to the facility. He informed that they had started with a budget of US$30 million, but the final cost would surpass US$45 million.
Chin said that investors both locally and from Trinidad have indicated that they wanted to join MovieTowne. He made reference to the Massy conglomerate, which he described as a fairly large player in the Guyana market, coming on board. He noted that the Massy superstore would be one of the biggest in the mall and in fact in the Caribbean. He added that they have already attracted many prominent Trinidadian retailers in addition to Guyanese retailers.
MovieTowne had started construction of a planned cineplex four years ago but the works had been stalled for some time before it later restarted.
MovieTowne’s Guyana cineplex will be the company’s first outside of Trinidad.