Audrey Marks (standing), president of the American Chamber of Commerce of Jamaica (AMCHAM), introduces Christopher Anand (right), managing director of Tavistock Group, during Wednesday's AMCHAM Speakers Forum Luncheon at the Hilton Kingston hotel, New Kingston, while R. Anthony Jenkinson, immediate past president of AMCHAM, looks on. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

Tavistock Group could spend the next decade and as much as US$4 billion (J$272 billion) building out the luxury resort town originally dreamed-up by Kingsley Thomas for Harmony Cove, a more than 2400-acre property in Trelawny on Jamaica's north shore.

Each element of the project is to be done with an equity partner.

In the year since Tavistock, an international investment outfit, signed a memorandum of under-standing (MoU) to take a 50 per cent stake in the project, the development has gone through a number of permutations.

But one thing has remained constant: it is to be the kind of place where the wealthy, famous and discriminating will want to live an and play.

According to Christopher Anand, Tavistock's managing partner, the concept drawings for the develop-ment will be completed within the next 10 weeks.

But the development, to be done in two phases, will include 2,000 rooms, consisting of a convention hotel of 1,750 rooms and 250 time-share units, luxury shops, restaurants, entertainment facilities, golf courses and a 300-slip marina. Private homes will also be on the property.

Ultimate investment

"The ultimate investment will be between US$2 billion and US$4 billion over a period of up to 10 years," Anand told luncheon guests of the American Chamber of Commerce of Jamaica (AmCham) on Wednesday.

"Assuming we get through in a reasonable time with environ-mental permits, it will take 18 to 24 months to start phase one, which will be under construction for two years," he said.

Tavistock, which has similar luxury developments in Florida and the Bahamas intend to use Harmony Cove to again position Jamaica as a place for luxury tourism, attracting to the resort some of the finest brands and greatest names in sports and other endeavours. It also intends to trade on the Jamaican mystique and the island's distinctive products.

Or, as Anand put it, part of the idea was integrating different segments of internationally recognised luxury with a celebration of Jamaica's "optimism, joy, music, art, food" in a manner that was not possible in other parts of the Caribbean.

For example, in other Caribbean destinations a person could order coffee, but in Jamaica the order could be for uniquely Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, or Red Stripe beer or Appleton rum.

business@gleanerjm.com