This plaza in the Portmore Town Centre adjacent to the Portmore Parkway is nearing completion.
Claude Mills, Staff Reporter
WITH A plethora of speculative development projects over the last few months and rapid population growth, the parish of St. Catherine is being quietly transformed into an economic juggernaut.
Sensing new opportunities, a number of major firms in corporate Jamaica have been making aggressive forays into the island's largest parish in order to woo a new generation of consumers.
Among these firms are blue-chip companies such as Bank of Nova Scotia, National Commercial Bank, Jamaica Money Market Brokers, DB&G, building societies and credit unions.
"With all the housing developments in Portmore and also in Spanish Town, and with the development of Highway 2000, the company felt that it was a good move to open up shop in Portmore last year. We have doubled our staff in only one year, and we will be moving to a new building in the near future," Pauline Campbell, manager of the Portmore branch of Dehring Bunting and Golding, said.
EXPANDED
"And Portmore seems to be booming, NCB has expanded, JMMB has expanded, we've heard that RBTT is coming here and Scotia will soon open, so a lot of things are happening in the financial market in St. Catherine. There are plans to look at the Port Henderson strip as a south coast tourism destination especially in light of World Cup of Cricket in 2007," Ms. Campbell said.
One of the companies which adds immeasurably to the new-found financial muscle of the parish is the Jamaica Broilers Group.
A few years ago, the group made a well-publicised relocation of its headquarters from Kingston to St. Catherine.
"We examined our operations and we found that 90 per cent of our organisation was in St. Catherine, and in between White Marl, McCook's Pen, Spring Village, Bog Walk, and the feed mill in Old Harbour. Sometimes when we needed to meet, we would lose an entire work day whereas now, we can meet in two hours, and everyone will be back on the job within 10 to 15 minutes," said Ian Parsard, vice-president of Financial and Corporate Planning.
Mr. Parsard said that since the move, the company has "saved money in terms of efficiencies in management time, and on meetings" and the sale of properties in Kingston has improved the company's debt portfolio.
"The highways have helped already in enhancing our ability to deliver chicken feed to customers and farmers more efficiently. We no longer have birds being stuck in Old Harbour traffic for one hour."
Yvette Nunes, marketing manager of the Churches Co-operative Credit Union which has two branches in Portmore, said her company is still expanding its operations in the parish.
"While we have been in Portmore since 1996, we significantly increased our investment in the community in 2003, when we erected our own building in the Portmore Town Centre at a total investment cost of $27 million. We have since established a branch in Spanish Town in 2000, again based on the growing membership in that area, and things have been going well. A lot of development is happening in the parish of St. Catherine and things are looking up for the future," Ms. Nunes said.
Winsynco Trading was one of the early pioneers with the establishment of the Wisynco Synthetic Company in Twickenham Park in 1964.
"At the time, we moved to St. Catherine, it was really out of necessity. We made our initial investment in the parish over 40 years ago, and over the years, our expansion has been in close proximity to the original manufacturing plant," said William Mahfood, managing director of Wisynco Trading. "We are committed to development in St. Catherine, and the investment has paid off in terms of delivering to customers because of the congestion problems in downtown Kingston. Now, we can get to our customers easier, and we are close to the port as well."
MAJOR PROBLEMS
According to Mr. Mahfood, Wisynco Trading has invested more than $1 billion in the parish over the last five years, and has worked actively with such humanitarian organisations as Food for the Poor, to support depressed communities in and around Spanish Town.
"The Government has just approved the sale of a 50-acre piece of land on the other side of the Rio Cobre for $350 million, plus, there is a lot of infrastructural development going on now which will give easier access to the hubs of Portmore and Spanish Town. Plus, there are huge tracts of agricultural land between Spanish Town and Hellshire so the continued industrial and commercial development of Spanish Town will create many new jobs," Mr. Mahfood said.
However, despite the rosy projections, the Spanish Town Parish Council is concerned that the lack of a concrete development plan for the town will cripple any economic advantages achieved in the next few years.
"In spite of the potential for an economic boom for the parish, it is critical that we devise a development plan for Spanish Town, and we have been in dialogue with UDC (Urban Development Corporation) and NEPA (National Environment and Planning Agency) because it makes no sense for all this development to take place in a disorganised fashion," said Mayor of Spanish Town, Dr. Raymoth Notice.
Still, the Council will be pushing ahead with its community tourism project in the heart of the historic capital.
JUMP-STARTING THIS PROJECT
"The project will not need a vast amount of capital. We'll be seeking the involvement of the JTB (Jamaica Tourist Board), the St. Catherine Homecoming Foundation and the Jamaica National Heritage Trust for this project, and we will be jump-starting this project first, using our schools and local partners, before we expand it to include tourists," Dr. Notice said.
In the meantime, the housing boom continues unabated. Four recent housing schemes which have been doing well in the community are the Aviary in Old Harbour, Eltham Acres, the Spanish Village and the Innswood Village.
Building societies have been striving to serve the needs of the emerging metropolis.
"VMBS has had a presence in St. Catherine for over 20 years, first in Spanish Town, which continues to be a success, then to Linstead, which has come into its own, and recently, we moved into Portmore, and that has proven to be a big success, plus we have a satellite branch in Portmore Pines," Frank Harrison, senior vice president of operations and chief credit officer of VMBS, said.
"Spanish Town has been consistently the leading performer for the parish which overall accounts for 17 per cent of savers and over 12 per cent of savings to the Society."
The population boom has resulted in huge demands for energy, raw material, water and land. But the problems, especially with water, persist.
"There are many communities in St. Catherine that are without potable water supplies. Some communities have minor supplies but they are poorly managed, many have broken water pumps, and the residents don't even pay minimal water rates because of the poor service. NWC needs to take full water management responsibility for some of these areas," Dr. Notice said.
