KRC revises property plans...

Avia Collinder, Business Writer

Kingston Restoration Company (KRC) is restarting its development grant programme dormant for close to two decades, but which was used to resuscitate 50 downtown properties in its peak years, says Executive Director Morin Seymour.

In its first iteration, the programme ran from 1986 and 1994.

The earlier KRC grant, which covered 15 to 25 per cent of the cost of upgrade, but not exceeding J$100,000, came with the proviso that any business established in the location employ at least one person.

The project was funded through loans and United States Agency for International Development donor support. New grant amounts are to be decided.

Last year, KRC sold the Machado complex to the Urban Development Company for J$80 million, which is renovating the property for use as its new headquarters.

Seymour now says the KRC, which controls some 17 properties in downtown Kingston targeted for redevelopment, wants to maintain control over usage of the real estate, and so has opted not to sell the other properties.

"We are not going to sell. We are using (the properties) for restoration purposes," he told Sunday Business.

"We have completed one on High Holborn Street which has both a basic school and a library on the property. For the others, we are looking to see where to put what."

Seymour said last Monday that the KRC was currently in negotiations with Petrojam for sub-lease of the Marcus Garvey Drive - located rum stores for a maximum of four years — a three-acre property touted as one of the largest available for commercial operations in downtown Kingston.

The site comprises three buildings. Attempts to ascertain Petrojam's intent were not successful, but the state-owned oil refinery has been pursuing an expansion programme, first touted in 2006 when Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA was sold 49 per cent of Petrojam.

The expansion project has slowed for want of financing. The consideration of Petrojam's offer is a backtrack on the KRC's original plan to establish a labour intensive information technology node in the location, for which it holds a 49-year lease.

However, the income to be earned, Seymour said, would help the restoration company to move faster on another location under consideration for the same employment goals, but which needed retrofitting. The executive director declined to identify the new location or to list other properties under KRC's control, stating only, "we buy derelict properties for redevelopment purposes".

The KRC has contributed significantly to the restoration of the downtown Kingston area for economic activity and employment. Its work extends property restoration to social projects.

According to Seymour, participants in KRC's Caribbean Examinations Council classes offered in the downtown zone garnered higher passes in mathematics and English in 2011 than the national average.

Established in 1983 by the Jamaican Government in collaboration with a group of building societies, commercial banks and insurance companies, KRC has executed an inner-Kingston development project, which involves providing additional workspace for commercial expansion in downtown Kingston, and restoring the area as a centre of economic activity and job creation.

For the properties controlled, said Seymour, the company was studying the adaptation of methods used by Los Angeles to revive its crime-ridden and poverty-stricken communities.

austanny@yahoo.com