Chang. invested in the Island Village plaza in Ocho Rios

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 told the Business Observer last week.

Thomas. conceptualised the Harmony Cove project

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 later told the Business Observer 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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