UTech hospitality school to cost J$451m
Published:Sunday | October 23, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Marcella Scarlett, Business Reporter
The University of Technology has selected HDB Construction Limited to develop its new hospitality school, but needs Cabinet to sign off on the contract valued at J$450.99 million.
The near half-a-billion dollar job involves the renovation of an existing building into a two-storey structure to be used both as a teaching facility as well as a training centre.
Kofi Young, vice president of planning and operations at UTech told Sunday Business the existing facility and its equipment, now used by 662 full-time students reading for a Bachelor of Science degree in hospitality and tourism management, are outdated.
The new building, Young said, will have "all the facilities that are required for the practical aspect of the programme". And it will be built to accommodate physically-challenged persons, he said.
Included in the design of the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management Teaching Facility, is a restaurant and the replica of a hotel operation consisting of eight demonstration rooms. Other major additions to the existing facility will include a public bar, dining facilities, laboratories to teach food and beverage courses, management offices and a demonstration theatre, and a housekeeping training laboratory.
On-site training facility
UTech currently has an arrangement with the on-campus but privately owned and operated restaurant, Lillian's, as an on-site training facility for students pursuing the course. Lillian's is a commercial restaurant.
The hospitality school is being funded jointly by the Caribbean Development Bank and the Jamaican Government. UTech hopes to have a similar facility established at the Western campus to be developed at Holland Estate, Trelawny and is said to be in discussions with the Ministry of Tourism about its feasibility.
Young says the school designated for the Kingston campus could expand in the future, and that the designs make "structural provision" for a third floor which would include features such as additional hotel rooms, solar water heaters to serve the laboratories, and space for a spa.
The HDB contract has already been endorsed by the National Contracts Commission.
The project duration and start date for construction were not disclosed.