SZA hunts 2,000 acres for four new economic zones
MONTEGO BAY, St James — With more than 2,000 acres of land needed to develop four special economic zones (SEZS) within the next 24 months, CEO of the Special Economic Zone Authority (SZA) Kelli-dawn Hamilton on Thursday urged realtors to help her and her team identify suitable locations across the country.
“We need the realtors to help us to connect the properties. We have the business opportunities, we have the potential projects. We have access, through entities like Jampro, to investors; we just need the land to do it. We all need to work together to realise the opportunity that the special economic zone creates,” she said.
She was speaking with the Jamaica Observer after a session on ‘Exploring Opportunities in Commercial Real Estate’ during the first day of International Real Estate Conference (IREC) 2024 being held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James.
It was a message she had delivered to realtors earlier as a panellist during the discussion.
According to Hamilton, the SZA is working to break ground for four new projects within the next 18 months to two years, saying that the feasibility studies are now being developed.
“They’re all new. We want to create a pharmaceutical special economic zone. The other one is a Silicon Valley-type zone where we’re looking at creating a global digital services large-scale municipality. Then we’re looking at capitalising on our success and experience in film. So we want to do a media city where we’re building out film production facilities, training centres, where we’re doing merchandising, so manufacturing could be encompassed there as well,” she explained.
“And then, of course, sport. We want to create a zone where persons can come in, train when they have cold weather in their country of origin…we want to develop a stadium as well, merchandising, manufacturing facilities, research and all the things that go into developing a sporting ecosystem,” Hamilton added.
They need 1,082 acres of land for the pharma SEZ, between 300 and 400 acres for the one dedicated to global digital services and sports, and another 412 acres for the media city.
She stressed that there were also opportunities for smaller sized lots.
“When you look at the landscape of Jamaica now it is changing. Literally, the skyline has changed. You’re seeing a lot of commercial properties going up, residential as well. So what we’re saying to persons who are doing commercial, check the authority, check what incentives are available to you as you create these opportunities for businesses. We want to work with you as well,” the SZA CEO urged.
“So we’re really here today selling the opportunity for our concept projects, but also for people who may not have 300 or 400 acres of land,” she added.
In her pitch to realtors, she reminded them of the benefits their clients could access by being part of an SEZ.
“For the developer who’s building out, their corporate income tax rate on their rental income is zero per cent. For the occupant who is operating within the special economic zone, their corporate income tax rate is 12.5 per cent and that goes down to 7.75 per cent. They pay zero per cent, GCT, and they pay zero per cent on their duty,” said Hamilton.
According to her numbers, 145 companies in 195 locations are now operating under Jamaica’s SEZ regime.
“There is no one place that companies have to be located to be in an SEZ, they can be anywhere; and we’re here to facilitate business,” said Hamilton.
IREC 2024 continues on Friday with sessions that will look at real estate as a catalyst for growth, real estate success stories and the future of real estate in Jamaica. A free-to-enter Home Expo component begins on Friday as well and continues into Saturday.
In its second staging, the conference is being hosted by the Realtors Association of Jamaica after a five-year hiatus after it debuted in 2019. The event has brought together major players from the sector and will also include closed door sessions, for realtors only, which will explore topics including training and certification.