Jamaica
News - Real Estate Sales (April 21, 2004)
Gordon Tewani buys Oxford Manor
Businessman Gordon Tewani is now finalising the
acquisition of the Oxford Manor building at 16 Oxford Road in Kingston, from
Finsac for a reported price of around $170 million.
An agreement had been reached with Tewani and
the purchase deal is to go to Cabinet for approval shortly.
The four-storey building houses the consular
section of the United States Embassy on its ground floor.
Tewani, who started business in Jamaica over
two decades ago with Mall and Tropic Jewellers in Kingston, has over the past
few years emerged as one of the island's real estate moguls.
For example, he has substantial real estate
holdings in the pricey New Kingston business district, including numbers 14, 16,
24, 26 Trinidad Terrace, which includes the 35,000 square-foot building that
houses the new Quad nightclub, and from which he earns $800,000 per month in
rental.
Tewani is also the owner of numbers 2 and 7
Holborn Road, in New Kingston, which house the two main commercial offices of
Dehring Bunting & Golding.
In 2002, the businessman purchased the 10-store
Dragon Court Shopping Centre on South Avenue, off Constant Spring Road in
Kingston, from Denis Joslin (Ja) Limited.
Tewani's acquisition of the Oxford Manor
building follows the decision by e-Services/Sitel Caribbean chief executive
officer, Patrick Casserly, to walk away from the negotiating table for the
property last year September.
Casserly, who wanted to set up a call centre on
the top three floors of the four-storey building, has since leased a 50,000
square-foot factory at Naggo Head in St Catherine from the Factories Corporation
of Jamaica for his operation. He expects to employ 600 workers at the factory by
year-end.
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