Work on Morant Bay Urban Centre set to begin in February
Published:Monday | January 31, 2022 | 12:06 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
After more than two and a half years since Prime Minister Andrew Holness broke ground for a new town centre for St Thomas, work is set to finally get under way in February. The projected completion cost is now at $6 billion, a tripling of the original $2-billion price tag when ground was broken on Wednesday, June 26, 2019.
This follows last Friday’s signing of the financing agreement between representatives of the National Commercial Bank (NCB) and the directors of the Morant Bay Urban Centre Company to fun construction cost for the Morant Bay Urban Centre, at the old Goodyear factory facilities in Springfield, St Thomas.
In a media statement, chairman of the Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ), Lyttleton ‘Tanny’ Shirley, gave a commitment that the project would meet the 24-month completion deadline and would come in within budget. He blamed the delay in start-up since the groundbreaking ceremony on the red tape involved in the getting the requisite approvals.
Now with the hurdles cleared, the contract agreement with China Harbour Engineering Company Limited (CHEC) is the next challenge.
Shirley said that the pact was on track to be inked within the next fortnight, subject to an agreement on pricing of some other variables. CHEC is also an investment partner in the project.
COVID-19 UNCERTAINTY
Shirley further disclosed that the uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 pandemic was also a major reason for the delay, coupled with the insistence by NCB that another feasibility study be conducted.
“You think about a financial institution lending $6 billion in an area where there has not been economic development in 30-40 years. If you were a bank, you would be hesitant to give such a loan. Therefore, we had to go through the proper risk assessment with their risk department and that took meetings and documentation to prove what we are doing,” Shirley told The Gleaner by telephone.
“We had to convince the various private-sector stakeholders that that location was the right location and could attract the level of investments from the various entities and they were prepared to pay the various lease arrangements to service a loan of that nature.”
Another reason for the delay, according to Shirley, was the increase in footprint, by 4,036 square feet, of the construction area, moving up from the 365,000 square feet at the time of groundbreaking.
Also blamed for the delay was the insistence by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) that adequate and appropriate mitigation be put in place to address flooding in the area.
“So you have two factors – increasing square footage of the building and the various steps that needed to be taken to mitigate against flooding and all those things that NEPA demanded, such as doing elevations of ground levels,” the FCJ chairman explained. He gave the assurance that having overcome all those challenges, construction will get under way shortly.
He anticipates that some 400 persons will be employed on a phased basis during construction.