Canadian buys Civic Centre

A wealthy Canadian businessman with substantial expertise in the Airbnb luxury business is the new owner of the Holetown Civic Centre in St James.

Joe Poulin, the man who bought the majority shares in the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Ltd (ICBL) in 2020 from the Bermuda company BF&M Ltd, is partnering with Government in building the new civic centre at Trents, St James, while he is also slated to build a 80-room hotel at a cost of US$172 million on the present site at Holetown.

Poulin, a Canadian entrepreneur, was vice president of Airbnb’s global luxury business from 2017 to 2019. Prior to that, he served as the president and chief executive officer of Luxury Retreats International Holdings, Inc., which he founded in 1999.

He is the ICBL’s chairman and founder and chairman of JPK Capital Holdings (Barbados) Inc., his family office, which is headquartered here and has six investments.

Poulin is described as an “Angel Investor” – someone who invests personal money into promising companies, typically in exchange for equity.

Amidst repeated calls for Government to reveal the new owner, a Government official told the Weekend Nation recently that it was no “mystery” as Kerrie Symmonds, Minister of Foreign Affairs had stated in Parliament on January 17 that the new owner was ICBL.

Speaking during debate on the compulsory acquisition of the land at Trents, St James, Symmonds, in reponse to calls from Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne to say who had bought the property, told the House of Assembly: “The Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited is going to be in a joint venture with BTII (Barbados Tourism Investment Inc.) on this project.

He said BTII would remain owners of the land at Holetown while ICBL would finance the new civic centre at a cost of $40 million as part of the deal.

“And so just to make sure that we are comfortable, the new civic centre is expected to cost $40 million and that will be financed by the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited, as I understand it and in association with the BTII, that build-out will take place, and there will, as I said, be a continued interest on the part of the BTII as we go forward with respect to preparing the new site, at which point then there will be a sale of that site to the new owner.

 “So that, Mr Speaker, the parties at this point are the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited, which, obviously, is a Barbadian company . . . but the fact of the matter is that the company in question is the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited and so this is not a matter about foreigners and foreign people and all of you know, the usual bogeyman which is raised by the Democratic Labour Party when it is convenient to them to do so.

“The land remains owned by BTII, which is Barbados Tourism Investment Inc., so that the beachfront property that we speak about is going to be a project which will see itself generated into an investment of approximately US$172 million and an 80-room hotel on the 3.6-acre site which is now housing the civic centre as we know it.”

The Weekend Nation reached out to Poulin but up to press time no response was forthcoming.

Government’s announcement about the sale of the Civic Centre at Holetown has been met with anger from both Barbadians and tourists. The civic centre is home to a police station, court, Barbados Revenue Authority, post office, a library and other services.

Last Sunday, there was a gathering at the St James site for what was called a “Roadside Parliament” and attendees demanded that Government halt its proposal to sell the property.

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