Guardsman developing new complex downtown
Published:Wednesday | December 1, 2010 | 12:00 AM
To house 3 subsidiaries, 2 training centres
Avia Collinder, Business Writer
Security company Guardsman Group will retrofit a downtown property acquired this month to house three of its businesses and areas to train personnel, but how much it spends will depend on the financing secured, the company said last Thursday.
The Kenny Benjamin operation has, however, budgeted US$2 million to US3$ million (J$172 million to J$258 million) to refurbish and build out property bought at 6-12 Water Lane in downtown Kingston, comprising three acres of offices and complementary facilities.
The new complex is expected to accommodate some 200 staff members, according to director of finance for Guardsman, Vinay Walia.
The location, he said, will house subsidiaries Orkin Jamaica Limited, the Guardsman-owned pest control business which became operational over the summer and is currently located on Carvalho Drive; Marksman Limited currently located on Balmoral Avenue and Guardsman Alarms which also has offices on Carvalho Drive; as well as two training centres consisting of airport and post-security training unit located at 12 South Camp Road and a general training and recruitment centre at Ivey Green Crescent.
The properties left vacant by the consolidation of operations will be used for new ventures, said Walia, noting that Guardsman has on its drawing board three "very interesting projects" which will be unveiled in the first quarter of 2011.
The downtown property which includes the Old Caribbean Fencing offices -
"We are currently waiting on design approval as well as financing," he said.
"We want to put in a special facility for training using the most modern methods."
Guardsman's focus on modernity is to be confined to the operation of the business, and not the look of the structure, which will have an old-world theme, according to Walia.
"We will also be looking at the upliftment of downtown with an outstanding design reflective of the old Greek parliamentary style, reflective of downtown itself," said the finance director.
"It will not be a modern high-rise."
Guardsman did a similar project in 1996 at 3-7 South Camp Road, the home of Guardsman Armoured Limited, with the backing of the UDC under the agency's façade upliftment project.
"We do feel personally, that downtown is the way forward," Walia said.
Guardsman is foremost a security company with three decades of experience and operations spread to the Caribbean, but the group has other interests, including a gym and nature park.
Its newest venture is pest control, through an exclusive distribution deal with American company Rollins Inc, owners of the Orkin brand.
Walia said Guardsman's pest control technicians are now being trained in Atlanta.
"What we are trying to do is approach pest control in a structured way, following what Orkin has done internationally," he said.
Guardsman's downtown investment is being done under the Urban Renewal Tax Relief Act which offers incentives and tax relief to companies and developers to deploy capital in the area.
Established in 1977, Guardsman group which began by offering trained guard dogs and then armed and unarmed guards for corporate and residential clients, now comprises 12 companies which operate in Jamaica, St Vincent & the Grenadines, St Lucia and Barbados.