Azan mulls ‘Coronation Market’ concept for Lakes Pen venture
Published:Friday | October 25, 2019 | 12:00 AM
Gassan Azan, the businessman behind the planned $11-billion Lakes Pen agricultural project, wants to integrate a farmer’s market in the venture as a retail hub that would replicate Coronation Market in downtown Kingston.
Azan has already earmarked 75 per cent of the 100 acres he has acquired from the Government to greenhouses, orchards and open fields for the farming operation. The remaining 25 per cent of the land could be utilised for a processing facility and, possibly, a farmers’ market for the buying and selling of fruits and vegetables produced on the lands.
“It’s just a concept of mine right now. I haven’t applied any acreage to it as yet but the idea is based on its geographic location. We believe it will be a pull for all Jamaicans to come there and shop,” Azan told the Financial Gleaner on Thursday at the during the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Conversation forum at which he was the featured speaker.
Azan’s acquisition of 100 acres of land in Lakes Pen, St Catherine, is only the start of a large farming operation that will eventually span 400 acres, assuming he succeeds in acquiring property from the Jamaican Government that has already earmarked for other purposes.
The project, which sits between Spanish Town and Portmore, St Catherine, will feature five types of farming methods and will host 25 acres of greenhouse, 50 acres of orchards and open fields, and a shade house – all equipped with state-of-the-art agricultural technology aimed at increasing production yield. The property will have under cultivation tomato, pepper, tumeric, ginger, honey, strawberry, coffee, yam, among high-demand crops to supply both the local and international markets.
Water from the Rio Cobre River, which runs adjacent to the property, will be used to irrigate the lands.
“Our planning allows for easy expansion, the mother-farm concept along with a farmers’ market. Because of the convergence of the road network, I feel that this area could be another Coronation Market and I’m not trying to replace Coronation Market; but if it happens, it happens,” Azan said.
“Right now, a lot of people in Kingston go to the Coronation Market every week to shop. It’s filthy, it’s unhygienic, it’s unsafe, etc, etc … so if we could create a market out in Lakes Pen, where we have the best available agro-produce in Jamaica, I think that we could get a lot of people to come and shop there,” the businessman said.
Despite continuous renovations of the Coronation Market over the years, vendors and shoppers complain consistently about the unsightly makeshift stalls, lack of water, garbage pile-up, poor maintenance, and crime committed in Kingston’s largest farmers’ market.
Azan is now in discussion with consultants from Spain and Israel regarding building out the Lakes Pen, St Catherine facility, aspects of which should be operational by mid-2020. Land clearing is also under way.
If the Lakes Pen agricultural project progresses in accordance with the planned time frame, Azan’s farmers’ market could take effect by 2021. The full project should come on stream by 2022.