J$149m deal for Jamintel building
Published:Friday | October 1, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Dionne Rose, Business Reporter
The former headquarters of the defunct Jamaica International Telecommunications Limited (Jamintel), located at the corner of Duke and North streets in downtown Kingston, is the subject of a cash and property-swap deal involving the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and the National Housing Trust (NHT), which owns the now derelict property.
The UDC, which will be renovating the building as office spaces, is acquiring the property for J$149.5 million, of which J$111.1 million will be in cash.
Joy Douglas, general manager of the UDC, told the Financial Gleaner that the full cost would be offset by J$38.4 million from the sale of a piece of UDC-owned land at Knutsford Park in New Kingston, on which the housing trust has built a multi-storey park.
"In order to ensure equality of exchange, the UDC will, therefore, pay to the NHT the difference of J$111.1 million," Douglas said.
She noted, however, that the deal was not yet final.
"The Urban Development Corporation, in execution of its mandate of urban development and renewal, has as a key focus, the redevelopment and repositioning of downtown Kingston," Douglas said in an email response to questions from the Financial Gleaner.
"In execution of this mandate, the UDC has agreed to purchase the Jamintel building, located at the corner of Duke and North streets as a strategic option in execution of development plans for this region," she added.
Douglas said the UDC plans to transform the seven-floor structure into office spaces that the agency would either lease or rent.
The NHT purchased the Jamintel building from Cable and Wireless Jamaica in 2005 for J$76.1 million. Initially, the housing agency had plans to swap the building for a sprawling property on Hope Road in St Andrew which now houses the office of Commissioner of Police. The Hope Road land is considered prime real estate suitable for upscale residential development.
The NHT had planned to transform the Hope Road property, part of the so-called Golden Triangle that includes Vale Royal, the official residence of the prime minister, into townhouses for young professionals.
The police, however, rejected the arrangement that would have seen the nerve centre of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, being relocated to the high-rise building downtown, saying parking space there was insufficient and that the location raised security concerns in the volatile downtown Kingston zone.
Following that failed arrangement with the police, the NHT listed the 65,000-square-foot downtown property on the market in 2006, at a price of $86.34 million.
The property was, however, withdrawn from the market in 2008, following a change of Government, with NHT saying its new board was reconsidering the building's use.
The old Jamintel building was again on the market in 2009 after the NHT failed to close a sales deal another government entity, which was never publicly named.