Sugarcane Bay Hotel investment to bring 375,000 visitors to St Ann

In what is considered the biggest tourism investment locally, ground was broken last Friday in Llandovery, St Ann, for the construction of the Sugarcane Bay Hotel, a US$1-billion project, which is expected to build 4,700 rooms over a 10-year period.

In welcoming the investment in St Ann, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett noted that over the last three years, much of the investment in the tourism product has been in Trelawny, St James, Hanover, and Westmoreland.

“And what a development it is,” he ­observed. “It’s going to bring a billion dollars of investment, which is the largest investment ever in hotel business in Jamaica and arguably any other business; it will bring a total of 375,000 visitors to the parish, which will increase the contribution of St Ann to hotel ­development and to tourism and the economy overall.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has assured the investors that ­investing in Jamaica was a safe bet.

“You’re on a very solid ­institutional ­foundation, so your investments will be secured,” Holness stated. “It will be ­secured from a legal perspective; our judicial system is very strong and resolves commercial ­disputes appropriately.”

He said the Government ­practises fiscal discipline as an established policy, regardless of which party is in power.

“So you can be certain that ­whatever you invest here will not be at the mercy of ­whimsical tax policy or other forms of regulations that could deplete or ruin your business.”

The development, spread across 226 acres of land ­located between Salem, Runaway Bay and Priory, is expected to ­provide 10,000 jobs and inject J$850 million annually into the economy. Upon ­completion, it is expected to pull 375,000 tourists annually to St Ann.

Bartlett hailed Dr Wykeham McNeill for the role he played during his tenure as ­minister of tourism, noting that the development stretched back several years.

According to Bartlett: “It’s ­perhaps the longest gestation period that a development facility has had in many, many years; and because it has taken us so long to have it, we’re now satisfied that everything is in place for it to move with alacrity, with speed, and also to ­accomplish that which it is designed to do; and what it is designed to do is to ­reimagine the parish of St Ann.”

Bartlett also hailed Armando ‘Mandy’ Chomat of the Karisma Group, who he termed “the architect of all of this ­involvement and participation with Jamaica”.

In his remarks, Chomat, ­described Sugarcane Bay as “one of the most ­ambitious developments in Jamaica’s ­tourism industry”.

Karisma came to Jamaica in 2013 with the opening of the 148-room luxury boutique property, Azul Beach Resort, in Negril. Within a few years, due to overwhelming response, Chomat said, the hotel doubled its room stock.

“This would not have been possible without the support and commitment of both parties of the Jamaican Government,” Chomat stated.