Growth & Jobs | Jobs galore as Morant Bay Urban Centre officially opens Thursday

At 10 a.m. on Thursday, May 15, the Morant Bay Urban Centre, situated in the Springfield district Morant Bay, St Thomas, will be officially opened by Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness. This ribbon-cutting ceremony will mark the completion of a project for which ground was broken on June 26, 2019.

Spearheaded by the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation through the Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ) and China Harbour Engineering Company, the centre is intended to be a significant catalyst for economic growth for the parish of St Thomas, oft referred to as ‘the forgotten parish’.

It was billed as a blueprint for urban centres in other parishes, and came to national attention when an elaborate ‘HOPE for Jamaica’ town hall meeting, organised by the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, was held on July 13, 2017, at a spot where the old Goodyear factory was located.

At the time, it was announced that the proposed $4-billion town centre, to be built on the 25-acre former Goodyear factory property, would be“a one-stop shop integrated industrial and commercial complex encompassing 365,000 square feet of space that will facilitate entities and amenities providing improved delivery of key public and private sector services”.

Of that amount, the Goodyear factory building would account for 130,000 square feet.

Key entities would include the St Thomas Municipal Corporation building; a town hall; a museum to be named the Paul Bogle Hall, in honour of the national hero and son of the parish; and a commercial/retail complex hosting a range of business and financial firms, and food establishments.

Among other things the centre would also have two business process outsourcing, facilities totalling approximately 80,000 square feet that would employ some 3,000 people working on a two-shift system. This would have the capacity for expansion by another 80,000 square feet to generate an additional 3,000 jobs. Early 2018 was when the project was down to get under way.

In his address to a massive audience Prime Minister Holness said the project marked further progress made on initiatives undertaken by previous administrations, and that the urban centre’s development represented the utilisation of a “significant asset … that has just been lying here for years, not being used”.

“The strategy of this government is that we believe in full asset utilisation. If we are talking about development, then you have to have the vision of creating modern facilities for the people,” the prime minister said.

MICRO BUSINESS PARK

At the groundbreaking ceremony Prime Minister Andrew Holness said the project formed part of a major plan to redevelop towns in Jamaica.“As a government, we decided that we are not just going to focus on the development of Kingston, but we are going to develop plans for all our major townships in Jamaica. We’re going to improve their infrastructure,” Holness was quoted as saying in a June 26, 2019 JIS report.

In his remarks at the groundbreaking, mayor of Morant Bay, Councillor Michael Hue, called on the citizens of the parish to acquire the necessary qualifications to take advantage of the job opportunities that would become available.

“This development has the potential to transform St. Thomas into the new economic zone. To do this, we must prepare ourselves to grasp the opportunities. Thousands of jobs are expected to be available through the BPO sector …and we must start to prepare ourselves … We must get…proper training and provide certificates of competence that will make us first in line to grasp these opportunities,” Mayor Hue was quoted as saying in the June 26 report.

At the 2017 townhall meeting, chairman of the FCJ, Lyttleton Shirley, said the Morant Bay Urban centre represented “a new dawn, vision and hope” for the residents of St. Thomas.“We are going to transform a space … that you … never imagine. It’s going to be the cutting edge and mother of all new urban centre development in Jamaica,” he said.

A November 2020 update on the FCJ website says, “The Morant Bay Urban Centre is presently over-booked. To date, interest in this project includes two BPO companies, a university, supermarkets and multiple fast-food restaurants, along with other government and private sector entities. The intention is to have a BPO company as a major anchor at the location, with 40-50,000 square feet being reserved for this sector.”

And, in his 2025/26 Budget Debate presentation in the House of Representatives on March 20, Dr Holness announced that the FCJ had acquired more land to develop a micro business park at the Morant Bay Urban Centre to accommodate small and medium-sized enterprises. The 200,000 square-foot park, established on 10 additional acres adjacent to the urban centre will provide dedicated spaces for small and micro businesses.