Ground was yesterday broken for a US$50-million complex in Kingston that will house a full-scale BMW/MINI international showroom and service centre, as well as a 220-room Marriott AC brand hotel.

The project, which will provide 600 jobs in the construction phase and approximately 300 permanent positions, is being undertaken through a partnership between Sandals Resorts International; ATL Automotive, the official importer of BMW and MINI in the Caribbean; and Marriott International, the largest hotel chain in the world with just over 6,000 properties.

“This continues to be a signal from our group as to how much confidence we have in this country and where this country is going overall,” ATL Group Deputy Chairman and CEO Adam Stewart told guests, including Prime Minister Andrew Holness, attending the ground-breaking ceremony at the Lady Musgrave Road site on the outskirts of New Kingston.

The BMW/MINI facility, he said, will be opened and operational in time for Christmas this year, while the target date for the hotel is the end of November 2018, in time for the start of the winter tourist season.

Stewart, who is also deputy chairman and CEO of the Jamaica Observer, explained that the hotel will operate on the European Plan (EP), which means that the quoted rate is for lodging only and does not include any meals. Any food provided by the hotel will be billed separately.

He said Sandals and Marriott have had “an amazing relationship for years”, and that both companies had been talking about building a hotel together in Jamaica that is “a little different”.

The result is this AC by Marriott, a lifestyle brand hotel.

Noting that Jamaica is heavily skewed to all-inclusives, Stewart said that Sandals, as the largest all-inclusive chain in the country, had decided to contribute to providing a balance in the accommodation subsector with more EP hotels.

“So this hotel will be EP,” Stewart said. “It will be our 11th hotel in Jamaica, plus three villas that we operate. This will be the first time for us building a hotel in the non-all-inclusive segment.”

The hotel, he said, will offer six restaurants, a coffee franchise, a pasta and pizzeria section, a bar, a salon, and a rent-a-car facility.

“The impetus is for visitors to come, do their business and stay for another three, four days and go to our UNESCO World Heritage site in the Blue Mountains, go to Dunn’s River Falls, go see Port Royal, the oldest Jewish synagogue in the western hemisphere, whatever it may be,” Stewart said.

“In addition, we’ll be building 10,000 square feet of conference facility with break-out rooms; so this will be a multi-use complex. We’re trying to put these five acres to great use and to build the new, hottest destination in Kingston,” he added.

The BMW/MINI facility will be located to the front of the property and will occupy 32,000 square feet. “It will have a European-style service centre,” Stewart explained and will be designed in such a way that customers will be able to see the work taking place in the back. “We’ll do the regional training and development in conjunction with BMW here in Kingston.”

Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation Daryl Vaz congratulated the partners on the project and said there was “no doubt that Jamaica is on the path to prosperity”.

He pointed to the latest business and consumer confidence indices released by the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce earlier this week that showed that confidence among Jamaican firms was “more favourable in every quarter during 2016 than at any time during the prior 15 years”.

He said the Chamber of Commerce report stated that the country is now beginning to feel very confident about the policies that are being pursued and there is great expectation that growth will in fact materialise.

“It is because companies such as the ATL Automotive Group continue to display patriotic faith in our country; investing in Jamaica, its people and our future,” Vaz said before presenting Stewart with the building approval for the project which, he said, was signed off by the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation on Wednesday this week.

“As a proactive Government we would never have wanted one day to pass between the ground breaking and the start of construction,” Vaz said.

Dirk Biehler, sales channel development and customer relations director, BMW Group, Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean, said his company was “more than happy and proud to have Sandals” as a partner.

Similar sentiments were voiced by Alejandro Acevedo, regional vice-president, development, Mexico and the Caribbean, AC Hotel by Marroitt.

He said he was impressed by the way the private sector and Government in Jamaica are working together to make the country better.

“We at Marriott International are truly excited to partner with Sandals Resorts to bring the AC Hotels by Marriott brand to Jamaica,” Acevedo said.