Jamaica
News - Real Estate - Sales
Source: Jamaica Observer, Dennise Williams, February
21, 2007
Slipe Road businesses up for sale worth over $200 million
Over $200 million worth of
commercial real estate is up for sale in the gritty Slipe Road
area of Kingston. But according to real estate broker Andrew Issa,
whose firm, Coldwell Banker Jamaica, is representing many of the
property owners, this turn of events has nothing to do with a fear
of crime.
"I would say that these
buildings represent family businesses that the next generation are
no longer interested in, and so the owners have decided to sell.
It has nothing to do with extortion," Issa said.
A policeman at the Cross Roads
Police Station gave support to Issa's claim, saying that the area
has been crime-free for some time.
"Since I came to work here
in October, there has been no problem with businesses being
robbed," said the cop who identified himself only as
Inspector Anderson. "My problem is that the neighbourhood is
bordered by the neighbourhoods of Kingston west and Kingston
central. [But] I think that you can take a chance and invest
here."
But even with that assurance, the
buildings have failed to attract buyers.
"The reason the properties
haven't sold quickly is that most of the properties are very big
and people want open spaces in their commercial buildings,"
said Issa. "Another thing is the price. If these were smaller
properties, in the $15 million price range, then they would sell
faster."
While Issa didn't match prices to
any specific property, the Business Observer learnt that one
building, consisting of two properties and two separate titles, is
priced at $47.25 million.
At least one building, the
former home of Carby's Haberdashery, has been on the market for at
least two years, but that, according to Issa, was not due to a
lack of interest.
"We have had interest from
persons who want to buy it for storage, and church groups have
looked at it," he told the Business Observer. "What
happens with the Jamaican economy is that once it grows, people
will be forced to expand into the Slipe Road area, as everything
is being taken uptown."
Most of the buildings represent
a bygone era in the 1970s when manufacturing and distribution were
the pre-eminent businesses on Slipe Road, once the second busiest
commercial hub next to downtown Kingston.
"The larger properties were
built to suit manufacturing," Issa explained.
Despite the desire of some
owners to sell, the area is still home to a number of prominent
companies, among them Courts Furniture, which has been a fixture
there since the late 1960s; City of Kingston Co-operative Credit
Union, also a fixture since 1979 and which has just completed a
multi-million dollar renovation; Bank of Nova Scotia; National
Commercial Bank; several churches; the Chapeaux hat factory; and
other furniture manufacturers.
Small wholesale businesses and bars
dot the normally busy street which is one of the main road links
between downtown Kingston and the transport and commercial hub of
Cross Roads.
As well, an art framing gallery
has been in operation on Slipe Road for the last 11 years.
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