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Ocho Rios businessman not deterred by COVID-19
MONTEGO BAY, St James — While the novel coronavirus has brought much of the tourism sector to a screeching halt, owner of Double V Multi-Purpose Complex in Ocho Rios, St Ann, Colin Mills remains undeterred in going forward with expansion plans.
Mills, who gave JIS News a recent tour of his property, said he has every confidence that tourism will make a triumphant return and did not want to be caught napping in terms of preparedness.
While admitting that he, “like everybody else”, has been facing the biggest challenge of his life in the form of the coronavirus pandemic, Mills said he is willing to pump millions of dollars in upgrading the tourism side of his complex, creating an attraction for the ages.
“I didn't get to where I am today by being timid. I am not going to sit here and wait for hotels to come on stream before I do something. I know of work to be restarted on hotels. We have been told that foreign investors are still interested in continuing with plans to erect thousands of hotel rooms in St Ann and neighbouring communities. I am willing to take my chances in doing all my infrastructural work and upgrade now…pandemic or no pandemic,” he said.
Mills' Double V, a landmark in the resort town of Ocho Rios, has been in operation now for 52 years, with the jerk centre being one of the oldest in the country. It currently has a picturesque poolside ambience, lounge chairs and a nature walk for visitors.
A former councillor for the Ocho Rios Division, he was part of the Ocho Rios development plan which was spearheaded by the late Prime Minister Edward Seaga in the 1980s.
“A lot of businesses have come and gone but we are still here. We used to have up to 3,000 tourists passing through Double V on a weekly basis back in the good old days,” he noted.