Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
Life of Jamaica President Richard Byles (right) is seen greeting guests at the opening Thursday of the new Winchester Business Centre. Others from left are president of the National Water Commission, E.G. Hunter, Housing and Transport Minister Robert Pickersgill and chief executive of the Jamaica Broilers Group, Robert Levy, at Winchester Road, St. Andrew.

Ashford W Meikle, Business Reporter

Insurance and financial conglomerate, Life of Jamaica (LoJ), says it plans to construct a unique multi-level parking facility on Dumfries Road in New Kingston following on the success of its residential and commercial real-estate development in the heart of Half-Way Tree.

The announcement was made Thursday by LoJ's vice-president for investments, Rohan Miller, at the official opening of the business centre, a commercial complex with some 61 small and medium-size offices.

LOJ new property acquired

Miller also announced that Life of Jamaica had recently acquired property at the corner of Short-wood Road and Allerdyce Drive on which it will begin construction of an upscale apartment complex consisting of 30 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments.

The parking facility, to be known as the Antigua Parking Garage, will have 500 spaces, and for perhaps the first time in Jamaica but a common practice in the United States, the parking units will be for sale.

The garage will also have a wrap-around commercial office centre which will be rented out by LoJ.

"At Life of Jamaica, we continue to seek out blue-chip locations so purchasers can get blue-chip returns," Miller said. "LoJ is about looking into the future, looking where things are going."

The Winchester Business Centre has total office space of over 100,000 square feet with some 230 parking spaces.

It was the second phase of a massive $1 billion real-estate development undertaken by LOJ on the four acres of land it bought from Jamaica Broilers in 2004.

The first phase, the Winchester Estate apartment complex - an upscale development of 60 studio, one- and three-bedroom apartments - was completed last year.

Miller also used the opportunity to highlight the company's previously announced real-estate developments, namely:

"Llandovery in St. Ann will feature 100 studio, one- and three-bedroom resort-type seaside villas on 100 acres of land.

"Winchester Estate, phase two, on Strathairn Avenue off Ruthven Road on premises currently occupied by Suthermere Prep. Some 30 studio, one- and two-bedroom units will be constructed.

"Seymour Lands in the Golden Triangle, a 55 unit mix of two-bedroom apartments and three-bedroom townhouses on four acres of land.

According to the insurance executive, the units in the various developments will be priced from $7 million to $30 million.

In his remarks, president and CEO of LoJ, Richard Byles, said the company was forced to re-enter the real-estate market because of the challenging business environment characterised by falling interest rates on government paper.

However, he said the insurance company remained committed to being an insurance company.

"Of course, as substantial as these are," he said of the real-estate projects, "they will not detract from our core business, which is to become the leading insurance company in the Jamaica."

ashford.meikle@gleanerjm.com