Digital Transtec tearing down Braemar HQ to build apartments
Published:Friday | May 10, 2019 | 12:16 AMAvia Collinder - Business Reporter
Lorna Green, CEO of Digital Transtec Limited, is tearing down the building that houses her company in New Kingston to develop a six-storey residential complex.
Green is constructing 22 residences on the half-acre lot at IC Braemar Avenue, starting officially at the end of June. Digital Transtec is relocating, but the new office site was not disclosed.
The housing development – to be called the Abeng of Braemar – is named in memory of Green’s son Abeng Stewart, who died last year. Delivery of the units is expected in June 2020.
Green said that the project, estimated at $600 million, was being pursued in partnership with an unnamed investor, and would be funded by bank loan.
Digital Transtec is a 24-year-old software company whose core market is the civil aviation sector. Most of the Transtec staff are software designers who work from home, and the space at Braemar had been leased to a third party who has been given notice, Green said.
She adds that the office building is old and “was not being optimised”, but that in 2016, when the restraint on the number of habitable rooms was adjusted by the planning authorities, it became feasible to build apartments on the lot. Density in this area was adjusted to 100 habitable rooms per acre. Before 2016, buildings on Braemar were limited to three floors, but now they can go up to six floors with the adjusted density.
The Abeng’s development team includes designers Virtuoso Architects, structural engineer Peter Jervis, and building contractor Landmark Limited.
The one-bedroom and two-bedroom units are already being marketed at $33 million and $46 million, respectively. Green says she is targeting both individuals looking for a home as well as real estate investors who would hold the property in their portfolio for the long term.
The covenant forbids Airbnb homeshare rentals by purchasers.
Abeng is the first venture into real estate for Transtec, Green noted. The entrepreneur is a former owner and operator of Kingston nightclub Priscillas, and part-owner of the liquid gas distribution company, Southcoast Gas, in St Elizabeth. She also serves as chairman and is part-owner of animation studio GSW Animation-Reel Rock.