House delay for ‘GUINEA PIGS’

It is a dust bowl. A dry, desolate and rocky worksite battered by the unforgiving Portmore, St Catherine sun. As it is, it is a long way from the gated community promised to potential homeowners – and neither they nor the developers can say for sure when the Hellshire View community, located on Shooter’s Hill in the parish, will come to fruition.

The promise by the Government-owned Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) and Rite Solutions Developers Limited was 623 two-bedroom, one-bathroom homes, with solar water heater, ceramic tiles and other modern finishes; while the community itself would boast a jogging trail, children’s play area, a tennis court, and swimming pool. In the initial phase, 101 units were slated to be built, for which applications were invited. The base cost was $17.2 million.

More than two years later, and after making their down payments, the frustrated applicants are still waiting to collect their keys. Some are less hopeful than others as their financial situations hang in the balance with limited communication from the developers, they claim. Now, they are concerned about what might be going on behind the scenes.

“We are not seeing any progress for the years that we have been waiting. Since then, there has been limited or no progress at all, and there are insufficient workmen on the site on regular days. It doesn’t matter what time you go there, almost nobody is on-site to show you that work is actually being done,” fumed Donald Grant, who along with his wife made a down payment of $1.9 million for a corner lot in December 2022.

“They told us to come up with the deposit so fast, and it is as if everything just died after that. Since then, a whole heap of people’s situations have changed; people[might] have migrated, and people [might] have died. A lot of persons did joint mortgages, and how many of them are still together since that time?” argued Grant, recalling his mad rush to come up with the deposit for the home at that time. The total cost for the house was $18.9 million, according to a sale agreement he shared with The Sunday Gleaner.

Others in a WhatsApp group formed by the applicants claimed they made similar down payments even earlier, with the promise that the homes would have been completed in a year. However, there have been repeated delays and limited communication – the latest of the latter coming by way of email from the HAJ in March last year.

In that email, the HAJ, which has a remit to provide shelter solutions islandwide, attributed the delays to a “confluence of events”, reassuring applicants that the first 101 homes, which were slated to be delivered in November 2023, would be ready in December 2024 instead. That email promised periodic updates on the development, but the applicants say none has been forthcoming.

Another applicant, who asked that her name not be used, said she learned of the housing development in 2022 while visiting her church nearby. She said she applied, but noted that the experience was fraught with challenges from the start. She said two days after being congratulated by the developers as one of the persons selected for a house, she received another email notifying her she was no longer on the list as it had been filled. A year later, however, she was again offered a home after another applicant reportedly pulled out.

The applicant said she emptied her savings to come up with the $1.9-million deposit for the $19-million home; and that sometime later she was given notice to leave the house she rented as it was being put up for sale. She said she had the first preference, but because all her money was tied up, that opportunity passed.

Despite her misfortune, the applicant said her spirits were still high, believing that she would get to move into her new home months later. That dream slowly turned to a nightmare as it became clearer each month that the house would not be finished in the time promised.

That (HAJ email) was the last communication

“From me deposit the money and drop off the sales agreement, that is it! That (HAJ email) was the last communication. There has been nothing more. I feel let down. I feel like HAJ and Rite Solutions hold me up and take my money,” explained the mother of two, noting how after making the down payment she met with her children and told them the news.

“Now can you imagine that conversation with your kids... . I send them pictures, I put them in the car and drive them down there, and after two years all they are seeing is pure dirt and stone and tractors doing nothing,” she charged. “Rite Solutions and HAJ has robbed me of the thrill of owning my first home. My children are extremely disappointed.”

Others in the Whatsapp group were critical of the Government’s promotion of other housing developments in St Catherine, while they had no indication of a comment on the inordinately delayed Hellshire View housing community. Some believe the delay is a deliberate effort by the developers to frustrate the applicants so they will pull out, and ultimately the properties could be re-marketed with a higher price tag.

Only one of the houses in Hellshire View had a roof when The Sunday Gleaner visited the location. It stood among concrete shells. Though it had a roof, that house was just like the others – it had no electrical and plumbing set-up, no tiles, no cupboards and cabinets, no doors, and no windows.

There was also no perimeter wall or fencing around the development. There were no sidewalks or roadways, and a handful of workmen were seen milling about near a tractor. They complained about the heat and a lack of water on site, while a watchman at the entrance advised visitors that the houses had already been sold.

Despite the look of things, Christopher Honeywell, managing director for Rite Solutions Developers Limited, is confident the houses will be turned over by the end of this year.

Faulty feasibility study

He explained last week that the hold up was due to a faulty feasibility study that underestimated the density of the rocks on Shooters Hill.

As a result, instead of excavators with hammers – eight of which had to be repaired after the first three months – the developers have had to employ drilling and blasting, a much more timely and costly process.

Nonetheless, Honeywell said Rite Solutions is committed to completing it.

“For us to blast the lots for those 102 units, we have had to blast all of the lots plus a buffer zone, because you can’t blast while doing the other types of construction at the same time,” he said. “The entire construction project was based on us digging and moving on, but because we are using explosives we had to literally blast out the entire thing and beyond. So that was the major delay in time, and then, because of the overruns with costs, the unfortunate truth is that we have had to go back to our financier to recast our financial arrangement. We need more money – over and above what we had originally bargained for and secured for the project.”

“We have been injecting additional equity in the project to show good faith and commitment to completing the project. Having put in close to a billion dollars in the project, they [we] are not putting in more while getting the additional funds from the bank. But the injections that are going in now are not happening at a rapid pace,” said Honeywell. “So you will see work going on there but it is really little more than a crawl. We just want to make sure we keep the site lively and viable until we get the additional financial resources.”

He said the additional funds have almost been secured and that he was asking purchasers, “to hold strain”.

Said Honeywell: “It is going to be a beautiful project. Sadly they are the guinea pigs, and the teething pains have had to be felt by them. But even with the delay we believe it will still be to their financial benefit if they just hold strain. If they take back their money now they are going to lose out and we don’t want them to lose out.”

He argued that Rite Solutions was not in charge of communication, marketing information and sales for the project and that it was not responsible for any communication lapse with the prospective homeowners. He also noted that the applicants’ monies are secured, and that there is no desire to have purchasers pull out in order to resell the homes at a higher price. He said the developers were committed to no more than a 10 per cent escalation cost.

Last week, after repeated efforts to secure a comment from representatives of the HAJ, which falls under the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, the agency requested “time to respond fulsomely”.

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com