Wednesday, March 12 2008

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FOR SALE: The famous Gingerbread House....

THE fate of the historic “Gingerbread House”, lies in the hands of Attorney General Bridgid Annisette-George whose legal opinion is being sought by Government.

Speaking to Newsday at the Red House yesterday, Minister of Culture, Youth and Gender Affairs Marlene Mc Donald said: “The procedure to adopt for the listing of properties has gone to the Attorney General for legal opinion and then goes to Cabinet. The first step is to list the properties, which the National Trust never did”.

Chairman of the National Trust, Vel Lewis said as far as they were aware, the Ministry of Culture is still considering the correct procedure under which landmark property can be listed.

Thus far, there has been no objections from the owners or agents to selling the house, he said. “We are still trying to settle the issue of the listing process.” Lewis added that the Trust is planning a special seminar for owners of landmark properties so they can acquaint themselves with the whole concept of getting their property listed.

The “Gingerbread House”, which is officially known as the Boissiere House, is listed for sale on the American website, craiglist.org by Lifetime Realty. The original asking price was US$10 million (TT$63 million).

However checks yesterday revealed that the price has dropped to US$7 million (TT$45 million). An official at the Realty company said the price was lowered so that prices international and local asking prices were similar.