KENCASA Construction and Project Management Limited and Zuccherina Developments have partnered to undertake an $8-billion housing development in Trelawny, and, with the approval process already underway, hope to break ground this June.

Principal shareholder of KENCASA, Kirk Kennedy told the Business Observer that the development, which, among other things, entails the development of 1,385 houses, commercial space and a tertiary institution on 192 acres of land, is geared towards Jamaica’s Vision 2030 economic development plan, and particularly at making Jamaica the place to live in 2030.

Importantly, the development should fit neatly among the numerous investment projects slated for the northern parish, which tips Trelawny as the location with one of the biggest draw to investment in Jamaica at this time.

Gore Developments Limited currently has plans to construct a 828-two-bedroom unit housing development at Florence Hall, Trelawny, the National Housing Trust has already contracted Foote Construction last October to begin infrastructure and construction works for 288 housing lots at Hampden Sugar Housing Development, while Kemtek Development and Construction has undertaken the development of 150 two bedroom houses in Falmouth, just across from the Trelawny Multipurpose Stadium — a venue slated for major entertainment events.

Housing solutions aside, the Falmouth cruise pier, currently being redeveloped to accommodate Genesis class vessels and the eventual redevelopment of the town as a tourism attraction, is only dwarfed by the multi-billion US dollar investment slated for Harmony Cove.

The latter alone will require an additional 10,000 housing solutions by Kennedy’s estimation.

But now, the market requires lower cost units — a demand Kennedy says the joint venture hopes to meet by delivering the some units at a price that would enable a single NHT beneficiary to buy it. That is, for under $4 million.

“The cost of infrastructure (roadworks, water treatment, etc) does really vary from unit to unit,” Kennedy explained. “We plan to subsidise the cost of the low end unit with the price on the higher end units.”

The target market is primarily the low to middle socio-economic income levels.

The project aims to develop four types of units: duplex studios; two-bedroom units, three-bedroom detached units and modular apartment units. The joint venture hopes to undertake the project in four phases ,with the first phase catering mainly to providing lower-end units — of the 446 units projected in the first phase 282 will be studios.

Most of the units across the entire development, however, will be two-bedroom units — 586 of the 1385.

But the heavy skew of tourism interest along northern coast and the prospects of extraordinary tourism developments in Trelawny being slated for the near future provides the joint venture with another opportunity — a tertiary institution.

Kennedy outlined plans to integrate space that could accommodate a college, perhaps one aimed at providing hospitality training, while benefitting from revenue generated from commercial space located in the middle of the housing development.

“We could perhaps attract existing hospitality programmes to move their operations to this new location given its proximity to tourism centres,” added Kennedy.

The partners — Zuccherina, which is owned by James and Alex Goren, and KENCASA — has already secured 10 per cent of the capital cost in equity and is awaiting approval from the parish council and the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA).

The development, to be called Holland Estate, will include housing units, commercial lots, recreational/green space and a utility corridor.