BGLC HQ project five times original cost
Published:Wednesday | November 27, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Tameka Gordon, Business Reporter
The Betting Gaming & Lotteries Commission (BGLC) is now projecting that the refurbishing of its Hagley Park Road property will cost $249 million or close to five times its original budget of $50 million.
BGLC acquired the property three years ago and is in the process of transforming it into its new headquarters.
In disclosures to Parliament toward the end of last year, the BGLC said it had spent about J$12 million to then on the repairs, but the project has been hit by "inflationary increases," according to executive director, Andral 'Jack' Shirley.
"Those increases, he said, may have resulted from changes in the value of the Jamaican dollar, but were "not as a result of any additional work or any increased scope", he told Wednesday Business.
Shirley, a former banker, was appointed to run the BGLC in March.
He is also overseeing the disposal of the BGLC's current headquarters at 17 Ruthven Road. Sale of the property is by sealed bids to be tendered by December 11, said Shirley.
"The relocation exercise is not dependent on the sale of the headquarters," he said.
"We are in the process of completing the building we purchased on Hagley Park Road, so in preparation, we have to dispose of this property because we don't need it anymore."
Following his March 1 appointment as BGLC executive director, chairman of the commission Gary Peart said Shirley's first major task would be the completion of the Hagley Park Road project, "hopefully, by year end".
This deadline will, however, not be met, Shirley said.
"We are committed to that relocation exercise (but) I have to be honest," he said, "We won't make the yearend target, but it will be in the first quarter of 2014."
The previous deadline for transforming the 78 Hagley Park Road property was March 2013. The project has been a source of embarrassment for the BGLC, which acquired the Shirlhome Building from Tanny Shirley in 2010 to serve as its headquarters.
The 61,000-square-foot property, which houses a 37,000-square-foot building, was acquired for $240 million. It was paid for with $100m in cash and a J$140m seven-year vendor's mortgage at 16 per cent annual interest.
BGLC got approval to spend J$50 million on the refurbishment, but the project will now cost "somewhere in the region of about $249 million" to complete, Shirley said.
Up to last week, there were no expressions of interest for the Ruthven Road property, but the funds for the Hagley park project are not dependent on the sale, according to Shirley.
"We have our funds identified and put aside to complete that Hagley Park Road building, it's not dependent on the sale of this property at all," he said. "The reasons for the delay were never financial reasons, never ever," the BGLC head declared.