MONTEGO BAY, St James – SQUATTERS at Montego Bay’s People’s Arcade have until the end of the month to vacate the facility into which management is looking to breathe new life, as part of efforts to improve economic prospects in the city.

The 25 or so families who currently occupy the property in lieu of somewhere else to live were put on 30 days’ notice to vacate on April 1 by O Dave Allen, operations manager for the arcade.

So far, they do not appear unwilling to comply with the notice.

“If the owners decide that we have to leave, then we have to leave,” noted one female.

“We are working people and sometimes we might end up in a situation where we need to find somewhere to rest our heads,” added a Rastafarian male. “I am working on finding somewhere to live. I will have somewhere I can stay temporarily, but I will have to find my own place and being a Rastafarian, it’s been difficult to find somewhere to stay as people are very sceptical of Rastas.”

Meanwhile, Allen said people who own shops at the facility would have to “use them or lose them”. The arcade currently houses 500 shops, but only about 100 of them are being operated as businesses.

“We are going to make the space available to persons who want to operate business,” he cautioned.

But ridding the arcade of squatters while getting owners to operate their shops is only two of the challenges that have to be overcome on the road to transforming the facility.

“Persons are dumping garbage (and) even defecating on the perimeter of the facility because many of the shops have been abandoned. Security is (another) concern, (so) we will definitely be putting in private security,” Allen said.

However, he was quick to add that getting security in place would depend on vendors paying the monthly $300 fee.

“We have to create an atmosphere that is conducive to business, an atmosphere where the consumer sees it as business friendly. We have to change the negative perception that may be there,” Allen encouraged.

To help make it happen, security of tenure also has to be addressed.

“Since 1996, that has undermined our ability to develop effective partnership with the Railway Corporation. They have failed to hand over the land to the St James Parish Council or to us as an entity,” Allen said. “We have had discussions with the managing director of the Railway Corporation Owen Crooks and he will be presenting our case again to the board, which is now chaired by O J Matalon.”

He added that there are also plans to meet with the western resort city’s new mayor Glendon Harris, in order to enlist his support to revitalise the arcade.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce Sharon Ffolkes-Abrahams has herself pledged to support the improvement efforts.

“I want to assure you of our continued support for micro and small businesses as we seek to move this country forward economically and socially,” she said during an address at the facility last week Wednesday. “The ministry is well on the way to developing a new micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) policy framework, designed to unlock the full potential of our MSMEs to lead to the economic transformation of our country.”

At the same time, Ffolks-Abrahams encouraged vendors to find creative ways to generate income and realise success.

“You can become a millionaire through a small idea. A small idea can become something big; all you have to do is work at it and get all the information you will need to guide you,” she said. “I encourage you to enlist the support of the Jamaica Business Development Centre.”

Allen is optimistic about the future of the parade.

“We have the possibility of generating and contributing toward growth in Montego Bay. We have a platform that can accommodate small and medium-sized operations in the city of Montego Bay. We are here to give people a chance to develop themselves and achieve their full potential,” he said.