CONSTRUCTION BOOMING IN CAYO WEST

WESTERN BELIZE NEWS Sept 8, 2008

MONTERO’S LUMBER YARD OF SAN IGNACIO TOWN, CHANGES FACILITY TO CEMENT BLOCK MAKING FACTORY.

The long standing famous Montero’s Lumber yard up by the Y junction of the Western Highway in San Ignacio Town and on the by-pass boulevard around San Ignacio town is no more. The lumber yard has been replaced by a cement block making facility. Montero’s had trouble getting a supply of decent lumber for the past 20 months, and most of their hardwoods were termite ridden, or twisted. Their lumber business has been replaced by a competitor across the same corner, over the Western Highway , close by, at the junction of the Cahel Pech side road. This competitor was small scale about two years ago, but has been improving delivery of lumber supplies steadily and today is supplying some good supplies of clear grained medium and hard woods. We certainly like what we have been buying and currently we are buying lumber here ourselves in preference to Pine Lumber who have moved from the BULL RUN location five miles away to the East, along the Eastern highway, to a posh modern, new lumber yard facility dealing now only in imported pine lumber. Presumably from the USA in soft pine? They sell pre-dressed siding, flooring and assorted sizes. The new Pine Lumber location is even further east from Bull Run Meat production and Central Farm Agriculture Research Station, on the Western Highway , by Redmond Farm, with the tall Cuban Royal Palms growing along the fenceline as a landmark. It is probably 8 miles East of Santa Elena Town.

FINDING FLOOR AND WALL TILES an imported construction commodity HAS NARROWED DOWN TO “CREATIVE TILE COMPANY STORE”, ON THE BY-PASS BOULEVARD AROUND SAN IGNACIO TOWN.

Our very small operation at Falconview Backpackers Adventure Hostel in developing real estate as part of the AUXILLOU TOURIST GROUP, has had a lot of trouble the past six months in finding affordable tiles. Most hardware stores, like Dito Juan, Lin’s Hardware, Western Hardware, Allen’s Hardware, Agro Tech Hardware, only have samples of tiles with outmoded prices, but with the oil price speculation on the world market, the imported tile prices they quote have been doubled or tripled. Even so, despite this, nobody has had any tiles in stock inventory for immediate purchasing around Western Belize . We eventual found Creative Tile Store and warehouse on the boulevard in the developing industrial area near the top of the hill, on the by-pass road around San Ignacio Town and they had both choices of tiles at lower prices in inventory stock. We ended up buying floor tiles by price and not by color, or decoration to fit the budget. We were looking for $2 tiles. We noticed that Benny’s Hardware down in the coastal port a hundred miles away, advertise in the port newspapers lower priced floor tiles, but our travails in trying to find floor tiles out in Western Belize, in Belmopan, Spanish Lookout, Santa Elena Town, San Ignacio Town, Benque Viejo and Melchor de Menchos across the border in Guatemala, were finally directed to Creative Tile Store and warehouse, a place we were not familiar with. They did indeed have tiles in inventory. Nobody else did anywhere in the Western Belize Cayo District Area. In the Auxillou Tourist Group, our family operations; Ilna Auxillou has one house under renovation and construction, Sharon Auxillou one house that is being worked on by a sub-contractor, Mrs. Silvia Pinzon Auxillou one house, Wendy Auxillou and Tina Auxillou, together have three houses they are working on for reconstruction and renovation in the Western Belize Recreational Area, all in the twin towns location. Floor tiling can run between $1500 and $4500 dollars depending on your choices per unit in the small houses common to this area. Getting tile at a budget affordable price is difficult out here these days. The construction business seems to be holding steady for the past eleven years in Cayo West.