Developer Eddie Azan is moving ahead with a new commercial complex which will rest on the old cholera grounds at the intersection of Waterloo Road and West Kings House Road in Kingston.
Hugo Matthews of Virtuoso Architects said on Friday that ground will be broken on the project in July and that construction will last around 12 months.
“It’s a retail outlet,” he said, adding that space will be there for offices as well.
The proposed development is for a two-storey commercial building to house a restaurant, bistro dining, pharmacy, supermarket, as well as office space.
Mathews said he could give no additional information at this time and that the investor behind the new complex wished to remain private.
However, Gleaner Business was otherwise informed that the developer is Richard Edward Azan, one of a group responsible for the transformation of Montego Bay to its south.
Eddie Azan, Fredrik and Damien Moe, and Mark Kerr-Jarrett are said to have pioneered the development of Fairview, expanding the city’s commerce towards Bogue.
CHOLERA CEMETERY
The Waterloo-West Kings House site in Kingston was earlier the focus of controversy as the privately owned land is where victims of an 1860 cholera outbreak were buried.
However, approvals were eventually delivered by the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation, the National Environment and Planning Agency, and the Ministry of Health.
As reported by state news agency JIS in December 2016, the health ministry’s chief medical officer, Dr Winston De La Haye, said extensive research on medical grounds had established that there is no reason for concern.