MANDEVILLE:
THE EXPANSION of the town of Mandevile is once again raising eyebrows, as new buildings and plazas open to the public on a monthly basis.
Areas once considered the outskirts are now integral parts of the town's commercial district, offering a wide range of products and services. The effect of this expansion is being felt positively in the job market, the real estate and construction industry and with spinoffs for many other players.
Once sparsely populated communities, such as Ingleside, Brumalia and Marshall's Pen, are now running out of housing space, as every bit of land is being used for construction activity. A similar situation is taking place in the centre of the town, as traditional business entities expand, or new ones, such as Grace, Kennedy Ltd., are offering additional products and services or buying out established businesses.
However, although the pace of growth, both in the residential and commercial sectors, has gained momentum during the last eight months, the process has been an on-going one since the early nineties, slowing down during the period of downturn in the financial sector. With regained momentum last year, the growth of the town took off again at, what some town fathers are calling, an alarming rate.
PLAZAS
Since the start of the year, three major plazas have opened, with over one hundred new businesses offering employment in a variety of fields. Other established operations such as Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and Robbie's Feed Store are opening additional branches in the town while feed distributor, CASCO, built a new multilevel outlet on Caledonia Road. At the same time, new buildings are going up in Leader's and Caledonia Plazas, as well as on almost every available piece of land in the town.
New pharmacies have dotted the landscape, while the seventy five-year-old Haughton's Pharmacy on Park Crescent has recently completed a massive expansion and facelift, adding light to the avenue. Not to be out-done, Fontana Pharmacy, which seems to always be in an expansion mode, has just added more than a third more floor space to its Manchester Shop-ping Centre outlet. Others, including the computer retailer Simartsoft, have moved from a small bedroom-like store to occupy a major floor in the Juici Patti Shopping Centre on Manchester Road, as well as opening another branch in the Midway Mall on Caledonia Road. However, the eye-catcher of them all, is the new multilevel one block BASCO building, which was completed and opened to the public in October.
PATTY OUTLET
This is followed by the soon to be opened Tastee Patty outlet now under construction at Perth Road and Ward Avenue Crazy Jim's Ice Cream on Caledonia Road.
Lots, on which some form of construction is now taking place, are occupied by car dealers which have proliferated the town in the last three years, with twenty two within a three mile radius.
According to the Manchester Parish Council's Building Department, there have been an average of 400 permits granted per year to construct buildings in the parish since 1999, with a significant portion for building within the town limits..
As a result of this growth, the Manchester Parish Council, through the Parish Development Committee (PDC), is mapping out strategies to ensure that the town expands in an orderly fashion. Mayor of Mandeville, Horace Williams, told The Gleaner that it is important that a plan to guide the regions development is put in place so that the infrastructure will also be continually upgraded to meet the demands associated with growth.
However, despite the positive growth taking place which has created new jobs, members of the work force are still finding it hard to make ends meet as they say.
SALARIES
According to Shana Minott, a clerk, salaries have not kept pace with the real cost of living, pointing out that she is paid $18,000 per week. After taxi fare, which eats up seven hundred dollars she said, "I am left with eleven hundred to buy food, clothes and help my grandmother".
To Austin James, the growth of the town also contributes to the growing crime problem in two ways. He said as more buyers and sellers come into the area, they bring or attract the criminal elements, especially pick pockets and hold-up men. Another negative, according to James, is that many young people see that the majority of the growth is controlled by the same persons. This he said breeds contempt in many young men, who are finding it difficult to meet their daily responsibilities and in desperate attempt to get some of the "riches" turn to crime, committing hold-ups and robberies.
In the meantime, the growth of Mandeville continues to defy the economists and other predictors as it has always done, regardless of the situation in other parts of the island.
