St. Thomas Businesses to Occupy 30% of Space in Morant Bay Urban Centre

St. Thomas businesses are to occupy 30 per cent of the space in the major Morant Bay Urban Centre, which is swiftly approaching completion.

Chairman of the Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ), Lyttleton Shirley, said, “The rest are clients from all over who would have met the requirements for ensuring that the residents of St. Thomas have the best facilities, most competitive space and that there is no difference in a St. Thomas resident going anywhere else than what they would get right here in St Thomas at the Urban Centre.”

Mr. Shirley was speaking today (January 30) during a tour of the facility by the British High Commissioner to Jamaica, Judith Slater, and her team.

He noted, further, that the clientele for the $6 billion-project have been “strategically and carefully assessed to ensure that there is a proper mixture”.

“There are a lot of clients. We have over 160 per cent of clients wanting to be [at the Urban Centre]. Not everybody can be inside here and as a private company; we have to ensure that the clients we are selecting also have the capacity [and] the track record of being able to pay lease arrangements,” the Chairman said.

“It is a major property; maintenance is going to be at a high cost, and we want to ensure that this is maintained as a well-run campus and not something you see this year and next year it starts to deteriorate,” he added.

Among the features of the major project are a main commercial building that will house almost 70 clients offering a wide range of services, such as fast food, fine dining, and a gym; eight warehouses for distribution and manufacturing; six stand-alone buildings, which include the University College of the Caribbean (UCC); Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC); a modern courthouse; a Government services building, and others.

Mr. Shirley hailed the project as being the brainchild of Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, who “believes strongly that if you can transform St. Thomas to this monumental campus, you can do it anywhere else in Jamaica”.

He pointed out that the project will be replicated in other towns, beginning with the Boundbrook Urban Centre in Port Antonio, Portland, for which construction will begin soon.