UDC reports progress towards Oceana divestment

The Urban Development Corporation (UDC) is reporting steady progress towards the divestment of the landmark Kingston waterfront property which used to be operated as the Oceana Hotel.

Since the closure of the hotel two decades ago, the property has been the head office of the Ministry of Health, but the Government of Jamaica has always been on the lookout for a suitable purchaser, bearing in mind the re-development goals for downtown Kingston.

K.D Knight, Chairman of the UDC, the state owned company which controls the property, told RJR News that he and other officials of  the Corporation met on Tuesday with investors interested in acquiring the property.

He reported that there were still "a couple of terms that need to be finalised", but that, coming out of the latest meeting, he and the UDC management team were "very, very upbeat."

The divestment of the Oceana property is widely regarded as a crucial catalyst for the long hoped for re-development of downtown Kingston. Situated as it is, on the waterfront, its return to use as a hotel would signal to other potential investors that there is growing confidence in the economic future of the area.

That development would complement the recent construction of a multi-storey building to host the headquarters of Digicel, the Caribbean's largest mobile telephone provider, just a few blocks away from the Oceana complex, on Ocean Boulevard.

The UDC is also hoping that the divestment of the long neglected Forum Hotel, situated eight kilomentres away at the western end of Kingston Harbour, will add momentum to the re-development process.