Progressive Grocers adds fourth mall
Three more to come by 2025
Published:Wednesday | December 15, 2021 | 12:06 AMKarena Bennett/Business Reporter
Progressive Grocers of Jamaica Limited has pumped $800 million into its fourth shopping centre on Barbican Road in Kingston.
The new mall, called Progressive Shopping Centre, was officially declared open for business on Tuesday, but already its directors – Albert Lym, Sing Slun Chin, Gladstone Loshusan and Bruce Loshusan – are envisioning the development of at least three more shopping centres across Jamaica over the next five years.
The parishes being targeted include Westmoreland, St Ann and St Catherine.
“We are looking, depending on where the need is, and also finding suitable land,” Bruce Loshusan told the Financial Gleaner.
The Progressive Grocers network spans 22 supermarkets that operate under cooperatively owned brands Shoppers Fair, Super Shoppers Fair, Progressive Foods, JR’s Bargain World Food Stores and D & Y Supermarket Wholesale. The consortium’s members otherwise operate separate family-owned supermarket brands, such as Super Valu, Loshusan, Sovereign, John R. Wong, and Brooklyn.
The grocery consortium also owns and rents commercial retail space, which Progressive says only makes up about 10 per cent of total group revenue.
The other three complexes owned and operated by the consortium are the Duhaney Park Shopping Centre and Harbour View Shopping Centre in Kingston, and West Gate Shopping Centre in Montego Bay. It is also affiliated with the Sovereign Village Shopping Centre in Portmore, Sovereign on the Boulevard, and Sovereign North in Barbican.
The Duhaney Park and Harbour View complexes are currently undergoing renovations that are due for completion by mid-year 2022.
The Progressive Shopping Centre, which is on the opposite side of the street from the Sovereign North complex and was done in response to demand for retail space, is the first of the four shopping complexes it now owns to be developed by Progressive Grocers itself. The other three were properties acquired by the group over time.
“The building at Sovereign North is very small, and so we were getting requests for more space than we had. So we decided that if we built something across the street, it could accommodate those other businesses,” Loshusan said.
Progressive Shopping Centre was constructed over two years. Its opening was partly delayed by supply challenges due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The building spans three floors, and features 11 shops ranging in size from 800 to 2,200 square feet.
Progressive Grocers typically reserves space for one of its supermarket brands on its malls, but not this time. All the space will be made available to independent businesses, including Lebanese restaurant Chez Maria, Resort Wear by Eroleen, Venezuelan restaurant Arepa House, DejaVu Fashion boutique, Candy Craze, City Dental, Broken Plate and Chinese restaurant Summer Palace.
The shops are leased for two to three years, with an option to renew.
“The original design was for 22 shops, but some of the tenants needed bigger spaces, so now we are down to 11,” Loshusan said.
Progressive Grocers of Jamaica, which was incorporated in November 1999, now employs about 1,800 workers and conducts business with approximately 600 vendors who supply goods to its supermarkets. Its distribution hub, which serves members of the consortium, is based at the group’s headquarters at Twickenham Park Estate in Spanish Town, St Catherine.