Yaadman big petrol station project hits snag
Published:Friday | October 1, 2021 | 12:08 AMNeville Graham - Business Reporter
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M arketing company Yaadman Petroleum’s plan to develop Jamaica’s largest service station at the bustling Christian Pen roundabout in St Catherine has hit a snag. At the August meeting of the National Environment and Planning Agency-Town and...
M arketing company Yaadman Petroleum’s plan to develop Jamaica’s largest service station at the bustling Christian Pen roundabout in St Catherine has hit a snag.
At the August meeting of the National Environment and Planning Agency-Town and Country Planning Authority, NEPA-TCPA, the board denied the application to construct and operate the petrol station along the Gregory Park main road in Portmore on four grounds. The commercial project contravenes zoning; the minimum distance from roads and housing; and ‘setback’ rules that dictate distances or mandatory space around properties; and state-operated road developer National Works Agency, NWA, is unable to support the proposed development, the planning agency said.
Yaadman principal Miguel Smith Jr said his project appears to conflict with plans for public roadworks in the area.
“They’re putting an overpass right in the middle of the land and that will connect with Mandela Highway,” Smith told the Financial Gleaner.
Yaadman Petroleum acquired the Christian Pen property for $180 million, on which he planned to build Jamaica’s largest service station and provide commercial space for three quick-service restaurants and a Hi-Lo supermarket store.
Smith says he had already secured financing from JMMB Bank to spend about $240 million on the first phase of the development, with expectations of investing another $550 million to complete the complex.
“After the National Land Agency advertised the land for sale as commercial property, we put in a bid with my commercial plan and we won. We had initial approvals from the NWA,” he said.
The project stumbled at the last hurdle: NEPA-TCPA board approval.
“Yaadman will not stand in the way of development, so I’m prepared to work with them.” he said, regarding making way for the upcoming roadworks that’s meant to facilitate future residents of the Greater Bernard Lodge real estate development.
“They’ve explained that it is necessary for the traffic coming from the 70,000 houses to be built,” he added.
Smith co-founded Yaadman with his wife, Tanya Smith, about 20 years ago. Over that time – excluding the period between 2004 and 2009, when the couple took time off from business for family reasons – they built, managed and eventually sold three service stations: one at Spur tree, Manchester, and two others in Santa Cruz and Luana in St Elizabeth.
Under partnership with Texaco, Yaadman has been selling domestic LPG and automotive fuel from four service stations in Priory, St Ann; Georges Plain, Westmoreland; Knockpatrick, Manchester; and Central Village, St Catherine.
The Christian Pen service station was to be part of a larger $1.42-billion spend on a network of Yaadman-branded service stations. Smith says he is still on track with the development of new service stations to be located at Bog Walk, St Catherine; downtown Kingston; Montego Bay; and Portland.
He has also not given up on his plan to put the largest petrol station on the market in Jamaica, and is in talks regarding potential replacement sites.
“We’re in negotiations, of course, because I bought the land from the government with a comprehensive plan that was well known. I’m prepared to talk, but my plans were solid and I’m not interested in money, but rather, suitable land,” he said.