FCJ to upgrade Garmex complex
Published:Wednesday | December 21, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Avia Collinder, Business Writer
The Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ) says it will be spending J$60 million next year to upgrade the Garmex complex and its warehouse facilities on Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston.
The warehouses, whose space rent for US$350 per square foot annually, plus maintenance, are slated for roof repairs and painting.
The bulk of the FCJ funds will be spent on reconstruction of the internal roads and drainage system at Garmex.
"The next major plans for that complex is the reconstruction of the roadways," said FCJ Managing Director Horace Sutherland. "Early in 2012 we should be inviting consulting engineering entities to bid for the redesign of those internal roads and, hopefully, be in a position to commence construction works later in the year," he told Wednesday Business.
The complex in which warehouse space is rented at upwards of US$350 per square foot annually has only "small pockets of space available. We are now processing application for most of these spaces," Sutherland said on Thursday.
Garmex is one of FCJ's most pricey properties.
Other locations owned by the FCJ are now attracting prices of US$225 per square foot, depending on location and on what Sutherland describes as the "economic cost" of the facility.
Underperforming properties
Other underperforming properties, amounting to 13 in 2010, have been put on the market.
"We make no income from some of those properties while at the same time we incur costs in terms of insurance and security," said Sutherland in reference to factory space put up for sale.
"Garmex, however, continues to be our main source of income and strategically we must make the necessary investments to keep it attractive to entrepreneurs."
The FCJ head said that "small pockets of space" were still available at Garmex.
Factories Corporation is the largest provider of industrial space in Jamaica, with approximately 1.88 million square feet under management. In January 2011, assets in the corporation's portfolio were valued at J$4 billion, down from J$6 billion in 2009 - a decline partially accounted for by loss of fair value on investment properties.