Jamaica
News - Real Estate - Projects (October
27, 2004)
Raymond Chang sees major potential in Harmony Cove
Jamaican/Canadian multi-millionaire
Raymond Chang is among the entrepreneurs who have expressed an early interest in
investing in the $72-billion Harmony Cove development in Trelawny, on which
construction is expected to begin by mid-year 2005.
Chang who was in the island last week,
attending a round table discussion on the project, will make the investment
through his private holding company - G Raymond Chang - rather than through CI
Funds Management Inc, Canada's third largest mutual fund of which Chang is
chairman, and holds a 10 per cent stake.
CI Funds Management has about Can$50 billion
(J$2.4 trillion) under management.
"Anything that I can do to help the
process along, so that the project can be completed, I will do it," Chang
stated last week.
Chang who has been quietly investing in Jamaica
over the past five or so years, declined last week to lay out at this early
stage, the nature or extent of his planned investment, but stressed that Harmony
Cove had a lot of potential, and that he would in fact be an investor in the
development.
Among the other local investments in which
Chang, who is brother of Island Grill CEO Thalia Lyn, has participated, are
Walkerswood Caribbean Foods, which is now building a factory; and the Island
Village plaza in Ocho Rios. Chang emigrated to Canada in the early 1970s.
Harmony Cove development will be on 1,400 acres
of prime beachfront land stretching from Braco to Silver Sands hotels in
Trelawny.
Conceptualised by the CEO of the Development
Bank of Jamaica, Kingsley Thomas, the development will have a mix of 1,400-acre
luxury homes, three upscale hotels, and villas, three small hotels, 200 luxury
private residences, a private airport, a marina and two championship golf
courses. It is expected to cost $72 billion.
Last week, Thomas who chairs the Harmonization
Limited - the company spearheading the project - met with potential investors at
a special investor conference at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Montego Bay.
"From what I have heard from some of the
potential investors, June/July should not pass before we see some actual work
taking place," Thomas told reporters attending the conference.
Thomas said that proposal documents would be
handed out to potential investors who would be given until February to make
their submissions.
Thomas stated that since the announcement of
the project earlier this year, there had been "overwhelming response"
from potential participants, forcing Harmonization Limited to stage last week's
three-day investors conference.
"The conference is giving us the opportunity
to present to the potential investors more detailed facts which will include
technical information on the site, coastal study, soil analyses, beach
profile," he explained. "We are doing this to help them come to a
decision to invest."
The conference also afforded Harmonization
Limited an opportunity to meet the potential investors face to face, and to
network and to examine the possibility of forming consortia.
Thomas also disclosed the approach being
contemplated for effecting the investment.
"We have decided to divide the property
into 12 parcels so you will have one developer undertaking to finance and
develop three parcels, another two parcels," he explained. "It is not
good to have such a massive development done by one person or group. It's best
for several persons to share the risk than for one to do so."
According to Thomas, Harmonization Limited
received offers from single entities to develop the entire project, but the
preference he stressed, was for the development to be broken down into parcels.
More than 80 potential investors from the USA,
Trinidad & Tobago, France and the Far East as well as local businessmen
attended the conference which ended on Saturday.
The conference was also addressed by development
minister Dr Paul Robertson, who held much hope for the project.
"Harmony Cove is an exciting departure
from our existing tourism product," he said. "There is something to be
said about a resort development that is not just about building rooms on a site,
but is instead a precise crafting of a superior travel experience that
outclasses, defines and make new strides."
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