PM Holness Unveils Plans for Boscobel Integrated Business Centre in St. Mary

Jamaica’s third Urban Centre development is set for the northeastern parish of St. Mary, with the unveiling of plans for the Boscobel Integrated Business Centre.

Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, announced the project on Wednesday (June 18), noting that the facility will be developed on a 30-acre open lot within lands reserved for the Ian Fleming International Airport.

He was speaking during the unveiling of the project development sign in St. Mary.

The project, being spearheaded by the Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ) and Airports Authority of Jamaica (AAJ), will offer 150,000 square feet of space to accommodate a range of commercial activities.

“I want you to… imagine an area which is developed with buildings, with facilities for trade and commerce, with facilities for hosting a school to train pilots to fly. I want you to imagine facilities for warehousing and I want you to imagine just as how you see people leaving the airport in the evening and going in the morning, I want you to imagine thousands of people coming in and out of this facility, both as persons employed and persons doing business,” the Prime Minister told the gathering of residents.

The first Urban Centre was established in Morant Bay, St. Thomas, with the second currently under construction at Boundbrook in Port Antonio.

“You will notice that we have been going around selecting various areas for urban development. It doesn’t mean that we want to make the entire Jamaica an urban space,” the Prime Minister pointed out.

He indicated that, “What we’re trying to do is to bring the convenience of proper planning, the convenience of world-class infrastructure and the convenience of having services in proximity to where people use them, and that is what we call the Urban Centre; so even rural communities can have an Urban Centre.”

The Prime Minister further noted that the Government, through the Urban Centre Renewal Programme, is actively fostering local economic development.

He pointed out that while St Mary has been “developing very well”, owing to its proximity to St. Ann and the spillover from the tourism sector, residents continue to face notable challenges within the parish.

“The idea behind developing the Urban Centres all across Jamaica is to provide the facility, the marketplace in which people can do their commerce and transactions efficiently. In other words, you have something called the national economy… now we have to build the local economy; and to build the local economy, you have to build these urban spaces where people can go and conduct their business efficiently,” Dr. Holness said.

For his part, FCJ Chairman, Lyttleton Shirley, described the unveiling of the Centre’s sign as emblematic of “a bold vision for St. Mary and Jamaica’s economic future”.

Referencing the recently completed Morant Bay Urban Centre and the ongoing development at Boundbrook, Mr. Shirley said the Boscobel Integrated Business Centre would “carry the experience” of these projects forward.