The Oxford dictionary describes a visionary as a person with extreme imaginative ideas and plans, and no doubt next to that description should be a smiling group photograph of Joseph “Joe” Whitter, his wife Angella Whitter and architect Clifton Yap.

The Developer’s Story

Whitter Village, so named, to pay homage to Joe, is a vision that has long been shaped in his mind. The idea came about after spending years in the United Kingdom and seeing similar developments with parks, shopping centres, apartments, offices, cafes, where the family would play, eat, shop and live. A place where husbands would meet wives for cocktails or a quick lunch. A place were office workers would be seen stepping outside for coffee or the now forbidden smoke, with the air filled with laughter of children playing by the fountain or frolicking on lawn while mom catches up with a girlfriend over cocktails.

Remembering a small 16-acre plot in Ironshore – a dot among his vast real estate holdings, armed with an enthusiastic and supportive wife Angella and the number of Clifton Yap in his rolodex, one of the most innovative architects of our time, he was determined to make his dreams a reality.

Having previously worked with Yap on an apartment complex, the Whitters were confident that he was the right man for the job. Angella said, “My husband voiced his idea and everything else was Clifton. Clifton set the footprint and we walked in it.” An unusual precedent for Joe, who is usually the one creating footprints too large to be easily filled.

Emerging triumphantly from extremely humble beginnings – stories of nights spent on stuffed crocus (burlap) bags as a mattress – 17-year-old Joe Whitter left Jamaica on a slow boat for the United Kingdom. Using monies he had saved from working in a cook shop and various other odd jobs, Joe arrived in a foreign country with no immediate family. He took to sleeping on park benches or anywhere he could get a night’s sleep, until he found a distant relative who gave him a “kotch” on her sofa.

With no formal education – only dogged determination to rely on – Joe took whatever menial jobs he could get: street sweeper, factory worker, bag packer and later a job in the gas industry.

After sometime he was able to buy his first house. Having met a bank manager who believed in him, he was able to buy and rent more houses to Jamaicans who migrated to England. This kind of forward thinking created a real estate empire and Joe Whitter became the first black millionaire in the UK.

Returning to Jamaica in November 1979, he met his current wife Angella in January 1981, herself a force to be reckoned with.

Speaking of her husband, she states with admiration and total respect, “In spite of my husband’s lack of formal education, he is the smartest man I know. He will run rings around anyone when it comes to business.” She continued, “He is hard to figure out, you never know what he is thinking.”

Even after suffering a stroke, which left him with limited speech and movement, he still goes into office several days per week. His fighting spirit is still in heavyweight form as, Angella informed, he still bosses her around and threatens to “fire her backside” on a regular basis, If things aren’t done his way.

The Architect’s Story

Until speaking to architect Clifton Yap for this article, I had no idea that he was the architect behind some of my favourite Jamaican buildings: the Sovereign Centre, the new Couples Tower Isle, Breezes Rio Bueno (formerly Grand Lido Braco), Doctors Cave Bathing Club and the new much-talked-about Secrets Hotel.

But it is his current project Whitter Village, that has me awestruck. When asked to share his vision for this ground-breaking project, Clifton stated that he was in total sync with developers Joe and Angella, Whitter, having the same vision for a self-contained complex with a shared town centre, which would facilitate living, working and play. A place where your car would only be used for out-of-town jaunts.

“I really worked hard on Whitter Village. I have always felt in resort towns like Montego Bay, we need architecture that reflects our heritage, a place for both locals and tourists to come together for a common experience, somewhere to spend time, a sense of place.”

Asked why not take the road most travelled – cookie cutter-plaza design, he answered, “Every design must have a sense of place; the location must take the lead and given the location I wanted to capture the ambiance of an old Jamaican town, showcasing our history and hopefully showing what, with some thought and planning, our towns, could look like. Our town squares are a mess”. I couldn’t agree more.

“Working with Joe and Angella, made this project a dream. I had total design freedom, so I was able to realise my vision of a “town” where individual shops, each a different colour, different roof line and material, appear to be built over time, reflecting individual taste and style but each transitioning to form a cohesive whole.”

Still a work in progress, there are offices and apartments on the drawing board to make this self- contained “town” a reality.

Some of the challenges that Clifton faced was the sloping land and not-be-frowned upon details like having all the restaurants face the north, so that for most of the day they will have shade to enjoy prolong outdoor dining.

Whitter Village, I predict, will become a landmark that will not only make the architect and developers proud, but all Montegonians.