The building that once housed SuperPlus Food store on Half-Way Tree Road near Cross Roads in Kingston is being converted into a modern shopping mall to accommodate just over 20 stores including a branch of Payless Shoes Source the facility’s new owner Winston Lee has revealed.

“We are going to create a mall which includes a supermarket and 20 other stores. We have Payless coming in, we have a jewellery store, clothes, pharmacy, cambio, Western Union and I think Lime might be coming in as well,” Lee told Caribbean Business Report on Tuesday. Caribbean Business Report has also learnt that Boulevard Mall will house another of the three Kingston locations of the American shoe store.

Payless Shoesource says it will open at least three stores in Jamaica next February in what it describes as an expansion of its retail outlets internationally.

“We will grand open three to four stores in February,” the popular American chain said in an e-mailed response to questions.

Lee, who has also invested in a project in Clock Tower Mall, called Bargain Mall, is transforming the 25,000 square foot facility that once housed the historic ‘State Theatre’, into a shopping centre called ‘State Mall’. He said he wanted to retain the historic significance of the building in the naming of the new development.

Before the State Mall, the building first housed the ‘Colony Club’, a cabaret club opened by Dudley G. MacMillan in the 1940s. His son Robert MacMillan told Caribbean Business Report that the ‘Colony Club’ featured regular appearances by Nat King Cole, and movie star guests such as Errol Flynn. The State Theatre opened in 1955, after fire destroyed the Colony Club.

MacMillan said the retention of the name is wonderful tribute to his father, who regarded the facility as his ‘fourth baby’. “I think its wonderful, because it commemorates my dad’s memory,” he said, adding that he and sisters Judy Ann and Peta Gay, would never part with the building because of its significance to the family.

When Caribbean Busness Report visited the Half-Way Tree Road site on Tuesday, construction was still ongoing on the building, even while one of the tenants, Bill Express continued to occupy a section. Lee, who has so far invested over US$750,000 ($63.75 million) in converting the building from a supermarket to the mall, said he is operating under a 20 year lease and chose to undertake the project because of the prime location on Half Way Tree Road, very close to a commercial area.

“That is why I made such an investment, because of the long lease,” Lee said. All 20 spaces are already rented and Lee said given the ease with which they were rented, the tenants obviously believe in the primacy of the location as well. “Seems to me that how the place was rented so fast, I would assume good potential sales,” Lee said.

Construction began on the building in September 2010 and should be completed by April this year. The construction site alone currently employs close to 40 workers. Lee said despite the state of the economy, now is as good a time as any to invest.

“Now the opportunity is right because when the economy is good, you might not have that opportunity. I take it while it’s here. I don’t really forecast for so far ahead but people have to survive and things have to continue. That’s the positive mindset I have,” Lee said.