Real estate developer Stanley Motta is reporting that its 58 Half-Way Tree Road development project in St Andrew is currently progressing on-time and within budget.

The Melanie Subratie-led company has so far invested over J$600 million to date on the construction. At the same time tenant negotiations have been well advanced and the management is looking forward to completion of the development by early next year, which is expected to significantly boost revenue and profits while improving shareholder value.

Construction of Unit 1 building commenced in January 2023 and the designed was done by architectural firm, Synergy Design Studio. Unit 1, which has over 8,266 square feet of rental commercial office space and only one floor, is being expanded and will have 84,000 square feet of rentable space on a 126,000 square feet building with 10 floors.

The additional office space is being pitched to business processing outsourcing (BPO) companies and a variety of other office users. The property rental company has packaged the location as a special economic zone (SEZ) designated property hosts BPO businesses and other financial service based businesses.

Stanley Motta’s half-year performance

In the meantime, Stanley Motta has eked out a modest half-year performance in which rental income went up by 4.7 per cent in comparison to the corresponding period in 2022. The improvement in income was attributable to increase in rental rates upon the renewal of lease agreements with tenants and also the depreciation noted in the Jamaican dollar compared to its greenback counterpart.

Administrative expenses for the June quarter showed a reduction of J$14.2 million compared to the same period in 2022, moving from J$108.7 million as at June 30, 2022 to J$94.5 million as at June 30, 2023. This reduction was due to lower repairs and maintenance expenditure incurred, lower electricity expenses and lower foreign exchange losses incurred within the period.

Improvements were recognised in the net operating income (NOI), funds from operation (FFO), net profit and net profit margin of the company for the 2023 half-year in comparison to the similar period in the previous year.

NOI and FFO show marked improvement

The year-to-date (YTD) NOI increased from J$151 million in 2022 to J$188 million June 2023, an improvement of 24 per cent. In the meantime, the YTD FFO improved by 32 per cent, moving from J$124 million for YTD June 2022 to J$165 million YTD June 2023.

The management reports that “these results were achieved through our commitment to maintaining strong management and operational efficiencies.” The earnings per share closed on J$0.19 for the half-year compared to J$0.15 over the corresponding period of the previous year.

The balance sheet remained strong with total assets as at June 30, 2023 of $7.7 billion in comparison to $6.5 billion as at June 30, 2022 and $7.0B as at the end of the financial year, December 31, 2022.