IDB locates land for new home in Jamaica
Published:Wednesday | April 30, 2014 | 12:00 AM
Avia Collinder, Business Reporter
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has completed a four-year search for property to construct new offices in Jamaica with the closing of the deal for one acre of land on Upper Montrose Road in Kingston.
The sale price was in excess of US$1 million, Wednesday Business understands.
Realtor Deborah Cumming says the development bank's plan is to build "a very green building in keeping with the environment". IDB Jamaica's office currently occupies leased space in New Kingston.
The bank did not respond to queries on its plan for the permanent headquarters in Jamaica. The country operation is currently headed by Therese Turner-Jones.
The IDB comprises 48 members, some with borrowing relationships. It is Jamaica's single largest creditor, with outstanding loans last valued, in March, at $150.8 billion. Comparatively, Jamaica owes the World Bank $83.7 billion.
Cumming, who heads up Century 21 Heave Ho Properties in Jamaica, said the bank has been hunting for a suitable site for more than four years.
"I approached owners with properties that met the necessary criteria. They wanted to be in the Kingston 5 or 6 area, in proximity to New Kingston, and it had to be a minimum of one acre," she told Wednesday Business.
Once the bank approved the site, it took more than a year to get the necessary internal approvals for the acquisition, said Cumming. The IDB is headquartered in Washington.
The IDB is one of the largest sources of multilateral financing for Latin America and the Caribbean. As noted on its website, the bank has offices in all 26 regional countries where it finances programmes and projects. In Jamaica, the bank is overseeing just under 90 projects and programmes on which loans are outstanding, according to finance ministry documents.
Both IDB and the World Bank are co-financiers, alongside the International Monetary Fund, of Jamaica's ongoing economic reform programme.