Hospital could substitute for Financial Tower

Logic, popular demand and political expediency  seem to have taken hold of the thinking behind the construction of a  70 story government tower on Panama’s Avenida Balboa.

The $250 million Financial Tower, the skyscraper with public and private offices, the former darling of the president, will likely not be constructed on the grounds of the former U.S. Embassy on Balboa.

The  new Minister of Economy and Finance, Frank De Lima, said Tuesday” "I personally believe that you can make better use of that land."

The minister announced that this week  he will meet with the architect Ignacio Mallol, who  was slated to receive over $7 million for  development plans. He will also meet with Minister of Health, Franklin Vergara, to analyze whether anew cancer hospital, which has already been assigned land in Chivo Chivo, be built in the area of ??the former embassy which adjoins the Santo Tomas Hospital

President Ricardo Martinelli, said recently that  he would support whatever decision De Lima. Made.

The Government wavered on the project, says La Prensa  after the breakup of the ruling coalition alliance and the departure of Alberto Vallarino and Juan Carlos Varela as ministers.

The Financial Tower was opposed by 15 civic organizations, architects and engineers, and local residents, who put forward multiple uses for the former American Embassy before it was torn down.