Stanley Motta scouting tenants for new high-rise

Property developer Stanley Motta Limited is scouting tenants for a new commercial high-rise at Half-Way Tree Road in Kingston into which it is pumping US$12 million.

In a move aimed at diversifying its rental client base beyond the business process outsourcing market, Stanley Motta is demolishing one of the structures at its 58 HWT complex, which will be replaced with a 10-storey building. The new structure is expected to be completed in 2025.

The building being replaced with the high-rise is known as Unit 1. It’s one of three buildings constructed in 2017 by Stanley Motta. The 58 HWT complex also houses the five–storey Unit 4 building, which was completed in April 2018, shortly before Stanley’s listing on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, and is home to the Kingston operations of outsourcing company Alorica.

Stanley Motta also owns the General Accident building, also known as Unit 5, which serves as the headquarters for General Accident Insurance Company. That building is held through Unity Capital, which is registered in St Lucia.

Stanley Motta Chairman Melanie Subratie said the company was looking to and beyond the outsourcing sector to tie down lease arrangements for the new building.

“I’m bounded by confidentiality, so I can’t say who we are in talks with, but it’s a diverse group of creditworthy clients, which includes a BPO operator,” Subratie said. “No lease has been signed as yet.”

Currently, Stanley Motta’s income streams deliver less than $130 million of revenue each quarter. Last year, its annual turnover amounted to half-billion dollars.

Through lease agreements between SML and Alorica’s local subsidiary, Jamaica Agent Services Limited, the American outsourcing company occupies 162,585 square feet of space at 58 HWT, amounting to more than 80 per cent of the 200,000 square feet available in the tech park.

The second-largest tenant is general insurance company General Accident. And Stanley Motta also has a three-year lease agreement for a section of Unit 1 with Transactions E-Pins Limited. Stanley Motta, General Accident and E-Pins are all connected to the Musson Jamaica group, a diversified conglomerate with holdings throughout the Caribbean and Latin America.

The new construction, which got under way in January, will span 126,000 square feet, of which 84,000 square feet will be rentable space. It will also add 44 parking spaces.

Subratie says the new project is expected to significantly boost revenue and earnings. In the quarter ending March, Stanley Motta recorded $127 million in revenue and made a profit of $65 million.

karena.bennett@gleanerjm.com