By Durrant Pate/Contributor

Jamaica’s central bank is set to spend billions of dollars building out its expanded operations under the soon to be implemented twin-peak financial regulatory regime.

Already, the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) has spent US$7.965 million ($1.25 billion) to purchase the former French Embassy at Hillcrest Avenue in St Andrew and news came yesterday that it has received Cabinet’s Infrastructure Committee approval of a contract for $420 million in consultancy fees to design its planned twin-tower office complex at its Nethersole Place, head office in downtown Kingston. 

The disclosure came during questions from Our Today at the BOJ’s quarterly news briefing yesterday. The final capital outlay for the entire capacity development programme is unknown and is a work in progress.

The capital works for the 10-storey office building and parking facility at Nethersole Place will cost billions to complete and likewise to retrofit the Hillcrest Avenue property, which will handle the BOJ’s back office operations and be used as a redundancy location in the event that its head office becomes inaccessible or goes offline.

Overall capital cost still undetermined

BOJ Deputy Governor George Roper sought to explain that capital outlay for the infrastructure and capacity development programme is still undetermined.

“So the consultant that we have secured, that cost is $420 million (twin-tower project) but for the Hillcrest development we are not at that stage. Where we are with Nethersole is far more advanced than Hillcrest. So what will spend in the end will depend on the design. So that is what the consultant will help us with.”

BOJ Governor Richard Byles explained that the planned development at Hillcrest is currently at the embryonic stage, noting that the existing building is approximately11,000 square feet and has to be retrofitted. He advised that the development will see the installation of many computers, officersfor specialised services and a vault for currency distribution.

“So don’t have any idea of that cost as yet,” Byles muttered.

On the matter of the dire need for office space and parking, the BOJ Governor emphasised, “Right now we’re not housing one-third of our staff; we can’t. In fact, we have leased some property in the Scotia building to house some staff so we do need offices as well as parking. So what we are likely to end with is similar tower to what we have here (at Nethersole Place) with more parking and as well as more offices with the intent of satisfying all the staff requirements for the expanded BOJ mandate which includes to come twin peaks and SRR (Special Resolution Regime for Jamaican financial institutions).

Necessity for more parking

The expansion plans for Nethersole will also accommodate increased parking for staff and customers, as the current staffing complement at the BOJ is 730 with only parking space for 350. Deputy Governor Roper shared that since COVID-19 more BOJ staff are driving, hence the necessity for more parking spaces.

While the design is still a work in progress, Roper told Our Today on the margins of the press conference that the idea is to have the design similar to recently completed One Belmont development in New Kingston, where a number of the floors are made out solely for parking.

Roper did not identify the preferred bidder, saying, “I’m not gonna divulge the company, the public will know soon enough; everybody will know who that consultant is.”