BOJ assigns $420 million for design consultant for twin-tower

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) has earmarked $420 million as consultancy fees to design its planned twin-tower office complex at Nethersole Place, downtown Kingston. 

It's the latest development in the expansion of the Central Bank. 

"It covers engineering, architecture, soil testing, and everything that goes into building a tower, it is estimated at $420 million. That is what we have put up for approval,” said BOJ governor Richard Byles at the quarterly press briefing held at its headquarters on the waterfront in downtown Kingston today.

The BOJ will name the selected consultant later, along with the timeline for construction. In April, the BOJ issued a tender for professional services for its '10-storey office building and parking facility' at Nethersole Place. The current tower spans 14 storeys and was opened in 1976. This allowed the bank to move from its original 1961 location. 

The BOJ explained that for several years, it has been “grappling” with the need for space to accommodate the expansion of its staff currently at 700.

"Right now, we are not housing one-third of our staff," said Byles. "So we do need housing for offices and parking."

In October, the BOJ acquired an 11,000-square-foot property on Hillcrest Avenue, St Andrew for US$8 million from Sygnus Real Estate Finance Ltd. The bank plans to use the Hillcrest location as redundancy, in case its head office becomes inaccessible or goes offline.

“The risk of earthquake and storm surge has come home to us in an acute manner. Where we are now is not adequate in many respects, and so we have started to hunt for a solution,” said Byles. “We currently cannot house everybody at this time, [even] without adding the additional mandates.” 

The BOJ will expand its remit to regulate wealth management firms. It is in addition to its current mandate of regulating commercial banks, credit unions, cambios, and microlenders. This model of regulation, called 'twin peaks', expands the BOJ oversight from focusing on savings to include investments. 

The development of an office building at Hillcrest remains under consideration.

“Nethersole is further down the wicket and we not there with Hillcrest as yet,” said George Roper, deputy governor at the BOJ in response to a query at the quarterly briefing.

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