Membership warehouse operator PriceSmart Inc, whose plans to build a new store in Montego Bay, St James, were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, appears ready again to set the ball rolling, but this time in Ironshore in the same parish.

The wholesale club, which is expanding in the Caribbean and other countries in the Americas, had purchased land at various locations in Montego Bay. It now seems close to submitting a formal application for construction and other permits to the St James Municipal Corporation, a source has informed the Jamaica Observer.

“PriceSmart is now looking at the golf course beside Witter Village in Ironshore for its Montego Bay location,” the source, who requested anonymity, said.

“It recently applied for permission to use the location [in terms of traffic flow].”

In March 2020 the company received approvals from the National Environment & Planning Agency (NEPA) for the construction of a new commercial complex and office space in Montego Bay. But, according to another source, a parcel of land which PriceSmart held in Catherine Hall has been sold while property in Ironshore has been retained by the company.

Ironshore, located on the island’s north coast, is to Montego Bay what the upper-income community of Norbrook is to Kingston and is considered an enclave of wealth in the tourism capital.

While the planning unit at the St James Municipal Corporation has confirmed that a construction permit had previously been granted pre-COVID for lands at Catherine Hall, it indicated that PriceSmart had subsequently changed its mind. In addition, it said that no formal approach has since been made for construction approval, but that there have been fresh discussions around the feasibility of new plans.

“We have received no formal application. An informal approach has been made, which is usual before spending money and meeting other expenses related to the formal application,” director of planning at the St James Municipal Corporation Trevion Manning told Caribbean Business Report when contacted, declining to confirm the location under discussion.

At present, the wholesale club operates a bakery at Fairview in the tourism capital. Its first store in Jamaica was opened on Red Hills Road in Kingston in 2003. Just this year, in April, it opened its second store in Portmore, St Catherine, after spending an estimated cost of $3.1 billion (US$20 million).

Headquartered in San Diego, California, in the United States, PriceSmart owns and operates 47 US-styled membership warehouse shopping clubs in 12 countries and one US territory selling merchandise and services to members. In addition to Jamaica, it operates eight warehouse clubs in Costa Rica and Colombia, seven in Panama, five in the Dominican Republic, four each in Trinidad and Guatemala, three in Honduras, two each in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and one each in Aruba, Barbados, and the US Virgin Islands.

Caribbean Business Report reached out to PriceSmart for updates on its plans for a location in Jamaica’s second city, but up to press time received no feedback.