New St. Thomas IT offices by June

By Andrew Green, Staff Reporter

THE OLD Goodyear tyre factory in St. Thomas will be transformed into a modern informatics park over the next eight months, says contractor Ron Foreman.

The main section of the factory is being converted under a $153 million government contract awarded to Exterior III Construction Limited in Kingston. Chief executive officer of Exterior III, Mr. Foreman said work at the site started just over a week ago.

"The basic structure is sound," Mr. Foreman told the Financial Gleaner. "We are going to make adjustments to it."

These adjustments include adding another floor within the single storey main building to substantially boost the amount of useable space, he said. The old metal factory walls will be replaced in parts by block and steel walls and the complex will be air conditioned.

Additional beams will be installed to support the new floor, he said. The floors will be built to allow for easy access to electrical and communications outlets.

The development will take place in two phases. Mr. Foreman said. The first phase, which is now under way, focuses efforts on the main building, while the second phase includes some adjoining structures. There will be 2,600 square metres of office space at the new complex, Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Technology, Colin Campbell told Parliament last June.

The building is being constructed according to specifications laid down by the investors planning to occupy the building, Mr. Foreman said. The design is similar to those of other buildings already constructed in freezones in Kingston and Montego Bay and at centres in Portmore and at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies.

Architectural drawings for the development of the factory had been approved before the middle of last year, Minister Campbell told Parliament. The architects are Rivi Gardner and Associates.

At its peak, the project will employ up to 150 people, Mr. Foreman said. The company has a policy of employing as many people as possible from the surrounding communities and also attempts to source materials in these communities.

Plans for the development of the 28 acre property as a centre for information technology service providers had been announced by Government from 1999 and the property acquired a year later. These plans were intended to compensate for the massive blow to the St. Thomas economy when Goodyear shuttered its tyre factory in 1997

But the development plan stalled late last year when government began considering a proposal to locate a textile factory at the property. In February of this year, Minister Campbell announced that the textile factory plans for the Goodyear site had been terminated and the information technology plans were again being considered.

The first phase of the project may end up being finished ahead of schedule, Mr. Foreman said. By the time the second phase is completed, Mr. Foreman said, "this will be quite an impressive building."

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