Camilo Thame, Business Reporter

Local developer, Gore Development Limited, plans to break ground on a multimillion-dollar housing development in Rose Hall, St. James, next month, to add more than 900 houses and serviced lots to the market over three years.

Gore plans to complete Rhyne Park Village, as the subdivision is called, by March 2009.

"We are projecting ... sales and construction of 277 (two-bedroom) units in phase one of this development," said the developer in response to Sunday Gleaner queries.

"The budgeted selling price for each unit in this phase is $5 million."

This places the total value of the houses in the first phase at $1.38 billion, with a projected development cost of $1.2 billion, using the average markup of 15 per cent typically earned on similar projects.

Gore's last big development in Montego Bay was a $4 billion project at Bogue at the city's south-west in 2002 that was to provide 1,600 homes in four years.

759 housing units

Rhyne Park will ultimately comprise 759 housing units, 146 serviced lots, a basic school and a commercial area of 1.6 acres (0.65 hectares).

The site is approximately 10 kilometres east of Montego Bay, with the nearest comparable neighbourhood being Coral Gardens.

The existing subdivision was originally planned and approved in 1974, but was put on hold until 1995 when the Victoria Mutual Building Society prepared 58 lots, but discontinued the development thereafter.

Gore then acquired 170 acres of land from Rose Hall Developments Limited, a company started by the late John Rollins.

Gore expects to complete sales by February 2007 and conduct handover of the units in this phase, between March and September 2007.

Each two-bedroom unit is to be 840 square feet, on a minimum lot size of 3,500 sq. ft.