The proposed development of a cultural precinct in New Brighton, which will encompass Emlotheni, Mendi Bottle Store and the Red Location Museum, creating a tourism district, is expected to create up to 1 000 permanent jobs.

This was revealed by Rory Riordan, of Dojon Financial Services, during a presentation to the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality recreation and culture committee yesterday.

Each of the three venues, which are close to one another, possesses a rich cultural and political history, and if their individual potential is combined, a vibrant tourism district can be created in New Brighton.

Emlotheni Memorial Square is where the first six ANC cadres executed by the apartheid regime are reburied.

Mendi Bottle Store is to be developed into an arts and entertainment centre and Red Location Museum is where Raymond “Oom” Ray Mhlaba will be reburied. The museum will also house the history of the liberation struggle. It will be opened this month to coincide with Heritage Day.

Riordan said the three major tourist attractions in the city – the main beaches, the Boardwalk and Bayworld – were all close together, but tourism was not taken into the poorer areas.

He said a number of institutions, including the Red Location Museum, Emlotheni Memorial, the Mendi Memorial, the historic New Brighton railway station and Olaf Palme Avenue – named after the late Swedish prime minister who supported the fight against apartheid – already existed in Red Location and New Brighton.

Proposed to be built now are the George Pemba Art Gallery, a centre for the creative arts, a display, lending and studying library, a theatre attached to a small conference centre, a cinema – for South African movies – restaurants, markets, shops, jazz clubs, other facilities and housing for artists in residence.

Also included in plans are the restoration of the New Brighton station, significant additions to the Emlotheni Memorial site, the Mendi Bottle Store, rebuilding of an arts and cultural complex and more Red Location housing up to the precinct boundaries.

“Integral to this is a planning design to incorporate all these developments into an historic walk, called the Freedom Trail, which will link it all, as well as new statues, murals, artworks, shops, restaurants, B&Bs and other commercial ventures,” Riordan said.

He said calculations in the business plan suggested that the Red Location Museum should, by its second year of operation, pay its own costs and have a positive cash flow.