Nine years ago when Crab Circle vendor Abigale Logan gave birth to a son with a disability, she decided that in order to care for her child who couldn’t do much for himself, she had to join an already successful family business at National Heroes’ Circle in Kingston.

However, selling boiled crabs, roasted corn and soup was already the business of her grandmother, Alice, and other vendors at Crab Circle, so Logan had to find a unique way to fit into the spot by selling juices and drinks. Eventually, she expanded to selling fish tea, jerk chicken and pork, roasted fish, and a shot of something strong to customers who requested it.

Unfortunately, her son died last year, but Logan drowns her pain in hard work and making her customers happy.

“Mi usually come out here from pickney days a run up and dung and mi like the trade. I have a big son who would have been nine this year if he didn’t die last year August. He was born sick. When he was born his brain wasn’t getting enough oxygen. I have been out here from I was 17 and I am 26 now.

“When I came out here on my own, I started to sell juice. But because I can cook I started to do some roast fish and some things weh different like fish tea, jerk chicken and jerk pork. Mi have mi jerk pan and everything and we jerk on weekends. My husband helps me. I wish to grow the business bigger and better,” she said in an interview with the Jamaica Observer.

With the donation of new stalls and facilities to the vendors of Crab Circle by J Wray & Nephew last Thursday, Logan’s hope of growing bigger and better may well be within reach.

“I am delighted that Wray & Nephew has come on board. I actually started from a small bar before I started the cooking. This will actually give me a big boost even outside of cooking. I would love to help Wray &Nephew to distribute their rum. As some people come out of the plane, a yah suh dem come and dem want rum and dem want food,” she said, highlighting that she would love to forge a stronger bond with J Wray & Nephew.

Nadine, another vendor, expressed to the Sunday Observer that with the new stalls, they won’t get wet when it rains.

“Mi feel good. Nuh rain naaa go wet we again, thanks to Wray & Nephew. This is a good thing.”

Senior director in charge of public affairs and sustainability Tanikie McClarthy Allen told the Sunday Observer at Thursday’s opening that the project was in the making for four years. She said the company had a vision to improve facilities at Crab Cirlce to beautify it and make it more accommodating to customers. She pointed out that the project at Crab Cirlce is one of many to come.

“We had a vision just to improve the arrangements here at Crab Circle and to make it more attractive for vendors and for Jamaicans and visitors. We spoke to the mayor of Kingston Delroy Williams and we were able to finally negotiate a settlement and we poured $30 million into building new stalls, infrastructure, plumbing and so forth, to make this space comfortable for the vendors and patrons.

“We started at Crab Circle, but that is not where we are going to stop. We have a few other projects lined up under the Jamaica 60 umbrella, which support entrepreneurship and a spirit of resilience and triumph and to celebrate success of ordinary Jamaicans even if they don’t sell rum. The only other project I can announce at this point is Harbour View. So look for something there and then we will announce the others in short order,” McClarthy Allen said.

Mayor of Kingston, Delroy Williams, said the municipality cannot fund the redevelopment of Kingston by itself and expressed gratitude to Wray & Nephew for the investment. The mayor said in short order, work will be done to further uplift the space.

“The facilities here are improving but the municipality stands committed to continuing to improve the space. We don’t believe that the space is complete in terms of renovation. There are small works that need to be done to bring the space to what we want to see. We will do additional work in the space.

“From day one we said the municipality did not have the resources to build out the transformation of downtown, but what we could do is inspire confidence in the redevelopment, in the transformation project for downtown and then you get the private sector to invest in the private sector. Is that taking place? Yes. We are seeing a far more positive mood towards investment in downtown and the transformation of downtown and the municipality is quite pleased,” the mayor said.