New Kingston shopping centre sold to Josa Investments
Published:Friday | August 11, 2017 | 12:00 AMAvia Collinder
Orville Lewis, operations manager at Bevad Management Services Limited, confirmed on Friday that the New Kingston Shopping Centre has been sold and placed under new management.
Cable and Wireless Pension Fund sold the complex to Josa Investments Limited. Bevad was appointed new property managers, effective July 1.
According to Lewis, all 51 tenants continue to operate.
"We are abiding by the lease for now," he said.
The sale price is unknown. Gleaner Business reached out to pension funds manager Victoria Mutual Pensions, which managed the Cable and Wireless Pension Trust portfolio, but the manager was said to be on vacation.
Josa Investments is a 12-year-old company owned jointly by directors Winston Lee, Johnathan Lee, Sandy Lee and Yan Lee, according to Companies Office records.
Josa Investments is also the owner of the former Barons Plaza, which was rebranded to Commerce Gate in February 2016 by developer Winston Lee.
Barons was purchased, along with the adjoining premises at 61 Constant Spring Road. Commerce Gate is now the home of the Ministry of Justice.
175,848 SQUARE FEET
Josa's new acquisition, the New Kingston Shopping Centre, comprises 175,848 square feet of shop and office space that sit on 2.26 acres of land. It was one of several New Kingston properties transferred to Cable & Wireless Pension Fund in 2003 from FINSAC, the agency that was established by the Government to bail out troubled and failed banks and insurance companies during the financial sector collapse in the mid-1990s. The properties had fallen to FINSAC when the bailout agency pumped in cash to shore up Life of Jamaica, which was subsequently acquired by Barbados-based Sagicor.
The New Kingston complex was previously put up for sale in 2008, alongside the Fairview Shopping Centre in Montego Bay, a 101,000-square foot property developed in the last decade, which has become one of western city's busiest commercial hubs.