Redbones heading to the ‘R’:
EVAN WILLIAMS plans to open a new Redbones Blues Café at the R, an ongoing development on the cusp of New Kingston on which he is partnering with Joe Bogdanovich.
The property is being developed as a hotel, but its 48 residential units will all be sold to individual investors. Three realty and property companies have been hired to market the units – Sagicor Property Services, Coldwell Banker Jamaica and RE/MAX Jamaica.
“I selected three real estate brokers and I gave them a certain number of keys to sell. They will bring in those buyers and once they are on board, those owners will enter into a property management agreement with us. Those rooms will be part of a pool which we will, in turn, rent as part of a hotel,” Williams said.
The business he describes sounds like a timeshare arrangement, but Williams said it was not.
Redbones is expected to open at the same time the R hotel launches into operation near the end of the year.
The R is supposed to open for business in November, a month behind schedule, and one of the realtors is reporting that sale of the units is picking up after initial reluctance.
“When last I checked, the penthouse units were almost all gone,” said Josephine Harris of Sagicor Property. “We as Jamaicans are known to buy into projects when we can see and feel and touch a finished structure so when it is finished I anticipate that there will be a rush for what’s left of those units, and I can assure you that there will be not much left to sell,” Harris said.
Williams showed off one of the units two weeks ago, which he believes led to the uptick in interest.
The eight-storey R hotel incorporates a combination of exclusive rooms and suites