Anthony Minott - Dr Morais Wallen (foreground), chairman of the Global Business Support Services Limited, signs a document as Mayor of Portmore Keith Hinds (left) and Alrick Campbell, councillor for the Edgewater Division, look on during the signing of management consultancy contract and press briefing at the Portmore Municipal Council's office, Portmore Pines Plaza, on Thursday. This is the first phase in the journey to building a new 300,000 square-foot municipal complex across from the Portmore Mall.

Portmore Mayor Keith Hinds told reporters on Thursday that the building of a 300,000 square-foot municipal complex, and the creation of a genuine town centre will aid Portmore's bid to become Jamaica's 15th parish.

The mayor said the municipal complex will have other amenities, such as an amphi-theatre.

"We want to put in a 1,000-seat amphi-theatre so we can encourage the arts in the Portmore area. We will have movie theatres in there and such delights, and a lot of commercial activities.

"And we will want to create a town centre for Portmore, and that will be in keeping with our bid for the 15th parish, as we will have to have a town centre accommodating our own parish."

The signing of the management consultancy contract was done between Portmore Mayor Keith Hinds and Dr Morais Wallen, chairman of Global Business Support Services Limited at the municipal office at Portmore Pines.

three-year time frame

The time frame for the completion of the building is three years, and the cost is between US$150 and US$200 million.

"We in Portmore had been suffering for adequate council space. We are also hampered in that we don't have good commercial space in Portmore. We have looked at the municipal council building we want to put up and I decided that we want to accommodate our courthouse, our tax office, registrar general office, NIS office, and other Government agencies, commercial banks, and also commercial building spaces," Mayor Hinds said.

good response

Mayor Hinds said he has been getting good responses from business interests with regards to the complex. "We are asking persons who are interested to come on-board and we have quite a lot of good responses from universities and pre-university," he stated.

"This building is located across from the Portmore Mall, on 26 acres of land. The UDC owns the land. We are in negotiation with them at the moment regarding the property."

He added that: "This morning's meeting was the first phase in signing a contract to procure the business plan, risk assessment plans and so on. We can properly guide ourselves as to what this building should cost and the income that we will be earning from it, so we can prepare a Cabinet submission to send to the Ministry of Finance.

"I ought to look at other available source of financing. I'm not leaving out that option. If a developer wants to come in and share equity in this building and become partners, that is something we are looking at."