THE National Housing Trust (NHT) could be making some headway in getting the Orange Grove/Outameni estate in Trelawny off its hands, the Jamaica Observer has learned.

It is understood that at least three proposals were submitted for the bidding process which ended on Friday,for the property, which a former board of the NHT approved for purchase under controversial circumstances in 2012.

The NHT’s invitation for applications for either lease or purchase of the property has dragged on unsuccessfully for months. The then People’s National Party Government bought the loss-making property from Orange Valley Holdings (OVHL) limited, owned by local filmmaker Lennie Little White, for $180 million.

Details of the transaction became public knowledge in November 2013, sparking public debate and outrage and leading to resignations of half a dozen board members.

The Trust spends an estimated $900,000 per month to maintain the 9.1-acre property.

Former chairman of the NHT, Dr Carlton Davis told the Jamaica Observer in November last year that the NHT was not opposed to a flexible arrangement, which would be more attractive to investors.

The chairman had, in June, told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament that the agency would be looking to either sell or lease the property, which the NHT said it had bought because it was a prime location for an educational, cultural and tourist attraction.

Auditor General Pamela Monroe-Ellis in a report to the House of Representatives in April 2015, concluded that the NHT’s purchase of the Orange Grove/Outameni property had been a buyout of a bad debt from OVHL.

— Alphea Saunders