ROSE HALL, Montego Bay – A state-of-the-art postal office, constructed at a cost of $14-million, is to be opened at Rose Hall in St James on October 13.

Funding for the building, which was constructed on lands donated by the Urban Development Corperation (UDC), was provided by the Rose Hall Development Company. An additional $1.5 million is being spent by the company to furnish the 1,500 square-foot facility.

“The facility, I would say, brightens our corporate image and sets the barrier to where we see ourselves going, particularly in terms of the modernisation process that we have undertaken,” said Miguel Arthurs, the Postal Corporation of Jamaica inspector with responsibility for Hanover, Trelawny and St James. “It is a premiere post office, the only ones that are similar to it are located in Liguanea (St Andrew) and Santa Cruz (St Elizabeth),” he added.

The facility, which is to replace the run-down Little River post office, will boast an Internet café, 70 private letter boxes, bill payment facilities and express mail service in addition to the usual services on offer at a post office. It will serve an estimated 8,000 residents from communities like Lilliput, Rhyne Park, Rose Hall and Coral Gardens.

General manager of the Rose Hall Development Company Stanley Nansen told the Observer that the building augured well for the development of the area, which has seen a tremendous increase in infrastructure development, particularly in the housing and tourism sectors over the last decade.