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Senator Norman Grant, president of the Jamaica Agricultural Society, says the farmers' group has a $1 billion plan to develop its Denbigh property in Clarendon.

John Myers Jr., Business Reporter

The Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) is to build its own hotel on the same property that hosts the annual Denbigh show, and is investing $200 million in the venture.

The project breaks ground Monday at the site in a formal ceremony with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller on the final day of the three-day Denbigh show.

The hotel will have 60 rooms as well as facilities for conferences, training and other functions, particularly for the agricultural sector and other businesses in central Jamaica.

"During Denbigh, the issue of hotel accommodation has always been a constraint and I think that in the future that area is going to be an area that a lot of commercial development is going to take place (such as) the Vernamfield airport next door," Senator Norman Grant, president of the JAS, told Sunday Business on Friday.

The facility is part of the organisation's $1 billion development plan to transform the 52-acre showground, the venue for the annual Denbigh Agricultural and Industrial Show, into an agricultural theme park.

Clarendon hotel shortage

May Pen, which is one of the island's fastest developing rural towns, is unable to accommodate large numbers of visitors as it currently has only two hotels - Versalles and Bridge Palm - which have about 68 rooms combined.

Senator Grant said the new hotel to built on about one acre of the showground shouldbe completed in 36 months.

"We have completed all of the architectural work and have applied to the (Clarendon) parish council for the necessary approval," he said.

The billion-dollar development programme is to be done over a five-year period and forms part of attempts by the JAS to generate commercial business for the property, which is left idle for most of the year.

As part of the development plan, sections of the property have been leased to the Wallenford and Mavis Bank coffee companies, which are to construct permanent structures there.

The Jamaica 4-H Club has also been given a 250-year lease on one section to expand its training facilities to accommodate up to 250 youngsters, up from the current 50.

john.myers@gleanerjm.com