MONTEGO BAY, St James — Main Street Jamaica, formerly Shoppes of Rose Hall in St James, was officially launched on Wednesday, December 16 and operators of the facility are being hailed for conceptualising a platform on which the top local artisans can now showcase their products alongside global name brand products for the consumption of local and visitors alike.

“To our visitors and locals alike, we managed to secure the number one in each category of food, music shopping and sports and entertainment— all unfolding before your eyes. We have Scotchies, best jerk; Cafe Blue, Devon House Cream, Kaya Herb House, offering CBD products; entertainment, art,” said Anup Chandiram, chief executive officer and chairman of Main Street Jamaica, at the facility, which also houses a number of in-bond shops that offers a range of top brand items.

“Our team had a vision that this facility needed to showcase the best of Jamaica, all in one place. We sat, reimagined, repurposed and rebranded it to be Main Street Jamaica. When you are thinking about typical main street you think of that everything should be where you want to see it.”

He was speaking on Wednesday at the facility where the first of the two-day Style Jamaica 2020, hosted at Main Street Jamaica. Style Jamaica offered an immersive shopping experience, entertainment, cultural presentations and showcased Style Jamaica fashion show pieces by Jamaican designers.

Style Jamaica 2020 was also paired with the Tourism Enhancement Fund’s e-Christmas market initiative, an online shopping marketplace showcasing a range of products from Jamaica’s designers and artisans, in addition to connecting shoppers to designers and artisans. The e-Christmas shopping marketplace also provides access to four conveniently located pickup centres located in Ocho Rios, Montego Bay, Mandeville and Kingston. Deliveries will also be facilitated to customers by courier services.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett commended the Chandiram family for conceptualising Main Street Jamaica.

“The event also serves as the official opening of Main Street Jamaica, the new name of what we once knew as Shoppes of Rose Hall. For that I must commend Anup Chandiram and his family. For many decades the Chandiram family has been one of the leaders of the in-bond shopping subsector, but, particularly at this time, I congratulate them on this new concept embodied in the creation of Main Street Jamaica,” said Bartlett.

“This design of Main Street Jamaica is intended to bring the best that we have in terms of our own local output against some of the world’s big brand names because we believe that Jamaica can compete in that respect and you see that the visitor wants something authentic, he wants something that is derived from the bowels of the people and the destination that he goes to authenticate his own visit by having a little piece of the country and that’s what we are offering here,” said the tourism minister.

“This is a really inspiring vision by Anup and the team to bring shopping at this level where we can be looking at world designs and against Jamaican designs and when we move around, we compete. So I am very pleased with this because it will inspire our producers to do more. It will get us into the realm.”

Chandiram was also commended by Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports Olivia Grange “for coming up with this concept”.

“I am really excited about Main Street and the concept because what it has done is to highlight what Jamaica is about— its music, its food and the great talent our artisans have. And what it has done is to bring all of this with brands of the world and to show that we can stand up and be a part of what the world is all about. Shopping is a major area for tourism and Destination Jamaica is one of the great brand; so it’s great that Main Street has come about because it means that you can come here now and get the world’s brands and you can also get what is Jamaica,” Grange said.

She added: “It also opens opportunities for artisans, for crafts people, for the fantastic food that we have to offer, the fashion… it just created an opportunity for local talent to be there to be marketed and to be exposed to the world along with the world’s brands.”