07/03/2024
Aruba Cultural Malls Buildings Updates:
Main Mall: AEDA building, formerly CMB and Brenchies. Opposite bus station, main street, San Nicolas.
This building will eventually house the 'main cultural Malls. It will require a complete rebuild which will take time for proper design, architectural, engineering, permits, etc. Work on this has started and we expect to be ready to start full construction in about 18-24 months. We will keep you posted.
Meanwhile, we wanted to do an initial renovation and are well underway on this. The ideas are to: 1) make it look good for our community to be proud of, instead of an old vacant building. 2) encourage others to do the same and improve their buildings so that our wonderful main street and vicinity can come back life and be a source of pride for our community. 3) Turn it into a lively place for business, offices, events, gatherings, and small business, as well as a place for our community to look forward to each week to come and enjoy. Also, a place for tourists to get a taste of real Aruba, and a place for our local artisans to work, display their wares, and for our locals to be able to earn a side income. When we are ready to do the major renovation, we will move this venue to another location that we are working on.
Status:
We have been diligently working on a major cleanup, which is now complete. Repairs and painting of exterior which is now complete, although parts of this will be redone and some added repairs. Interior and garden cleanup has been accomplished. Repairs to interior of the buildings, courtyard, rear open area, etc. are well underway with a crew there almost every day! There will be 6 stores on the lower street. Renovations are well underway. Glass storefront doors will be added to each after each has a renter. The first 3 stores are expected to be complete within the next few weeks, and the final 3 shortly thereafter. The former bank section has 3 separate entrances and is almost ready for anyone interested in all or any section for offices or other uses. The upper corner is a nice 99m2 private office and is ready for rental. There are 3 large (about 106m2 each) warehouses that are currently being worked on and will be ready shortly. There are many uses however we are strongly considering dividing them in to space for artisans to use, and to show their wares. This may be a nice attraction for visitors, in addition to our local community. Finally, we have been working extensively on our center courtyard/Garden area and large rear open air arena that have many uses, including events, markets and some upcoming surprises. In fact, we may have a preliminary opening on this area and parts of the main buildings in time for our national Anthem and Flag day! We will know soon, so please follow us for an update to see if we wil be ready for a major event for the entire weekend of Anthem and Flag day! If you are interested in a table, popup, or other, contact us.
Building #2, our AEDA Promenade building. Formerly Cosecha, opposite O'neal. Work has been actively going on where we have a second crew actively working there. This will house one of the smaller malls (building #3 in the works!) and with a very special design! Sneak peak evening of 15 and day of 16 Mar where some of our local folks will be showing off their wares.
A lot more to come!
