Morant Bay Urban Centre not yet in business

Four months after its official opening, the Morant Bay Urban Centre, MBUC, confirmed tenants are retrofitting their allotted spaces but are yet to start doing business there.

The 365,000-square-foot commercial complex, which opened in May, is expected to house a mix of government services and private-sector operators, and has long been touted as a game changer to bring investment and jobs in the parish of St Thomas.

The MBUC is an integrated industrial and commercial complex developed through public-private partnership led by Factories Corporation of Jamaica Limited, FCJ, at a reported cost of $6 billion, starting in 2018.

The tenants were initially given three months to outfit their spaces to commence business, but FCJ Chairman Lyttleton ‘Tanny’ Shirley says some leeway has been extended to the tenants, and that process was proceeding apace. He said he expects some of the businesses to be operational in the next few months.

“We have been gracious enough to extend the three-month build out period in which they go in and retrofit the space to their business requirements,” Shirley told the Financial Gleaner.