DEVELOPERS of Fairmont Estates, expected to be a swanky, gated community in Irwin, St James, have rubbished claims that the project has been scrapped.

“No, not at all!” Martin Addington, one of the principals for Global Precast Homes Limited/A & E Construction Limited, told the Jamaica Observer last Tuesday when asked if the project had been permanently halted.

Checks on the Real Estate Board’s public database showed that the company has renewed its developer’s licence for an 82-unit residential project located in Vales of Irwin. Renewals are done April 1 each year.

Addington expressed surprise at the rumour being bandied about that Fairmont Estates is no longer viable because wastewater from two nearby housing developments will need to drain directly into his development. The developer said while he had heard, from the St James Municipal Corporation, that water from Unions Acres and Cashew Grove may need to drain in the direction of Fairmont Estates, that would not be a major problem.

“If they wanted to, we could; because we’re putting in a drain to go out to the river. We wouldn’t mind sharing the cost,” Addington told the Sunday Observer.

He also explained why Global Precast missed a January 2025 deadline for work to resume. The project was halted in late 2023 to give them time to put tighter financial controls in place. According to Addington, the company cannot move ahead as expected because it failed to get a loan from a financial institution as expected.

“When we told them we’re resuming, they said that everything had to be resubmitted, updated documentation and so on. When we updated everything, they just told us that they can’t provide us with the funds anymore,” he said.

“We’re trying to get their name off the title, and we’re in the process of getting another loan secured now. This causes another long delay,” Addington added.

Fairmont Estates has had its fair share of setbacks and, two years ago, the challenges became too much. According to Addington, 40 interested buyers were given refunds in September 2023 as the company tried to get back on track.

The original dream was to build a high-end, gated community made up of 41 two-bedroom detached units with sale prices starting at US$150,000 (about $23.5 million at today’s rate) in its first phase. Phase two was supposed to consist of 62 three-bedroom houses and 14 townhouses. Planned amenities included “a swimming pool with a sundeck, a clubhouse equipped with a gym and lounge area, and a lush green park for recreation and outdoor entertainment”. There were also plans for “a tennis and basketball court, a football field, and a strolling path”.

There was an understandable buzz around Fairmont as it is strategically located in an area expected to boom because of its proximity to a section of the under-construction Montego Bay Perimeter Road. Indications are that a tolled entrance will be in that vicinity of the highway, which is expected to significantly shorten the distance to Ironshore and beyond.

But Global Precast has consistently faced challenges securing funding.

“We needed to have completed a larger percentage of units to use as equity prior to securing the loan,” Addington told the Sunday Observer in June 2024. “We’ve revised our financial strategies and engaged new partners. We now have more equity in the ground, and we’ve also implemented stricter financial controls and a more conservative phasing approach.”

The upgraded plan, as he explained in 2024, is to ditch the townhouse idea in favour of just two- and three-bedroom units and to scale back from three phases to two. There are supposed to be 76 units in phase one, with 10 three-bedroom units already completed. These appear to now be occupied by workers assigned to the perimeter road project.

Last Tuesday Addington was unable to say when work will resume but his optimism for the project had not waned.

“I’m working with another bank now. I should hear back from them, I guess in another week or so, hopefully. [The project] is going to happen!” he told the Sunday Observer confidently.

Some of the 10 completed units at Fairmont Estates in Irwin, St James.

Lot 1 of Fairmont Estates in Irwin, St James. The project has been scaled down but developers insist it has not been scrapped.

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