CABINET has approved a contract, valued at $375,189,367.00, to Tankweld Limited for the construction of two blocks o f buildings totalling 36,000 sq ft of space for the Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ) at Marcus Garvey Drive.

The Factories Corporation owns and manages 1.7 million square feet of space islandwide. At Marcus Garvey, the construction project is part of a redevelopment and expansion initiative.

The FCJ informed the Jamaica Observer that each new block will be sectioned into 1,000 and 2,000 sq ft spaces creating warehousing and other facilities.

The government body said cash resources and project financing are coming from the FCJ.

The project will start on February 1, 2022, with a completion date scheduled for 12 months later.

Since 2018, the Factories Corporation of Jamaica has been planning to construct an additional 1.5 million square feet of space to satisfy demand in agro-processing, manufacturing, business process outsourcing, distribution and warehousing.

At last report, for fiscal year 2017/18, the FCJ earned rental income of $732.56 million, which was $26.66 million or 3.8 per cent more than the previous year’s $705.95 million. Occupancy levels for FCJ factory space were then running at 93 per cent.

The Marcus Garvey project, the FCJ indicated, is targeted specifically for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Business Observer was told, “The construction forms part of the strategic focus of FCJ to blend small businesses with larger businesses to facilitate their growth and expansion. These SME will get access to the space at reasonable rates.”

Developer Tankweld Metals, meanwhile, indicates on its website that it has been building capacity “to supply Jamaica’s entire construction sector with its building material requirements”.

The company has operations located in Kingston, Montego Bay and the Port in Rio Bueno, with a total of two million square feet of warehouse space to store inventory under cover.

Its operations, the company indicates, are fully automated with over 100 10-ton overhead cranes for quicker loading and unloading of the trucks and also optimising storage, and minimising damage. Tank-Weld Metals also exports building materials to the Caribbean region.

Tankweld was formed in 1970 as a steel fabrication company specialising in the fabrication of steel tanks of all types and for various purposes. Today, it has several subsidiaries catering to various niches in the construction industry.

Today, Tankweld indicates it employs over 800 people in operations covering distribution of building materials, manufacturing several of its steel products, fabrication of steel structures, heavy-duty haulage, piling contracting, and equipment rental. The company is also the exclusive dealer in Jamaica and the Caribbean of the Shacman brand of heavy-duty trucks.