Dabdoub to develop homes at Coral Gardens
Published:Friday | October 6, 2017 | 12:00 AMAvia Collinder
Abe Dabdoub said last Friday that he is targeting a market of teachers, policemen, hotel workers and young professionals for a multistorey development that is expected to break ground in January at Coral Gardens in Montego Bay.
The complex will provide 126 residences spread across three blocks - including 60 two bedrooms, 60 studios and penthouses - on a five-and a-half acre property located a mile away from the community's police station. Each block will be six storeys high.
Dabdoub said the project would cost about $900 million for which financing is being arranged with local commercial banks, but noted that the details were private.
He said he purchased the land around 35 years ago - in the early 1980s - from an overseas company, and that the structures on the property were destroyed over the years by two hurricanes. The site was once used for filming scenes for movies, according to Dabdoub and project manager Hugh Scott.
Now Dabdoub has put together a team to spearhead the development and bring the residences to market by December 2018. The team includes architect Hugo Mathews, and engineers and project managers Asco Project Consultants, which is owned by Scott.
The project manager said last Thursday that the team was working with a January deadline to launch construction, but noted that building permits were still pending from the parish council. NEPA has already approved the project.
"Almost all the agencies are familiar with it already," Scott said. "The site was originally approved for town homes, so permission is now being sought for the new design".
UNIT COSTS TO BE DETERMINED
The developers plan to put the project to tender. Scott said the cost of the units to buyers would be determined by the results of the bids.
"In another week we will be making up the tender list as to which contractors will be invited. We have had expressions of interest from overseas. We are doing due diligence on them," he said. Tender documents will go out to five or six contractors, he added.
Each of the three towers will be built simultaneously, and should be able to meet the one-year timeline for delivery, due to the method of construction. "It's poured wall concrete, not block and steel," the project manager said.
Dabdoub said the sixth floor of each block will be penthouses, which are not likely to be offered for sale.
The lawyer said he is back in the real estate development business after exiting the market in the 1970s, and is considering other projects for properties he owns.