Susan Gordon, Staff Reporter
MILLER
INSURANCE PROVIDER Life of Jamaica plans a J$1 billion residential development at Llandovery, St Ann, on seafront property it has acquired.
Rohan Miller, vice president of investments at LOJ, said the company expects to build between 80 and 90 two and three bedroom semi-detached homes on the 10 acres of land which it two years ago paid Jamaican Redevelopment Foundation for an estimated US$1.6 million.
Miller expects the homes to sell at between US$150,000 and US$350,000, or J$9.8 million and J$22.8 million at current exchange rates. The development is still in the planning stages.
"The concept is to have a gated community which is catering to people who want to live in a semi-resort setting," Miller said. "We want to create a villa-type environment."
Ironically, Life of Jamaica was among the financial sector firms that found themselves in trouble having over-extended themselves in real estate, and other projects that used short-term money for long-term assets. LOJ was subsequently acquired by the Barbadian group, Sagicor.
LOJ has recently returned to the real estate market with an apartment and office complex on Winchester Road in the Half-Way Tree area of St. Andrew. Those units are now being sold.
Miller said the Llandovery units will similarly be sold, given LOJ's current strategy of not buying or developing property to hold.
"We will only do this (the development), if it works out to be profitable,"he said.
