KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Jubilee Market in downtown Kingston has been reopened with a new name 15 years after it was destroyed by a fire.

It will now be known as the Jubilee Commercial Centre, according to Mayor of Kingston Andrew Swaby.

Speaking at the reopening ceremony Swaby said, “I just want to ask everyone to make sure you take care of it. Don’t allow it to be rundown. We changed the name to show that it’s a business centre because you are no less of a business person than the person working at NCB (National Commercial Bank) or the big companies.”

Swaby was speaking to the over 40 vendors who were removed from the streets of downtown Kingston and placed in the commercial centre on Monday.

The vendors will be required to sign lease agreements to secure their spaces and will have to pay for their own electricity bills directly to the Jamaica Public Service (JPS).

Several markets and arcades have been lost to fire in the past because of illegal electricity connections.

The downtown vendors have been plying their wares on the street for years following the blaze but Swaby says that era has come to an end.

“I don’t want anyone with a stall inside to come out on the road, we are trying to keep it sterile,” Swaby said.

He stressed that there should be no subletting of the stalls.

Work has been ongoing on the centre for years and former Mayor Delroy Williams is credited with much of it, which Swaby lauded him for.

READ: $50M renovation of Jubilee, Stony Hill markets to be completed by February – Williams

The market was built in 1888 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee.