President and CEO of MegaMart Gassan Azan. - File

Gassan Azan will open his third club store under the MegaMart brand in Montego Bay in November, marking completion of a shopping complex that represents investment of US$20 million.

The price tag is US$2 million higher than the US$18 million price that Azan had quoted a year ago when construction got off the ground.

Azan, chief executive officer of MegaMart, said the economic indicators suggest that Montego Bay, dubbed the tourist capital, is ready for a sustained expansion.

MegaMart's entry now is meant to ride that expected wave.

The complex is located on a nine-acre site at Catherine Hall, an area of the city that, over the past three years, has been expanding both commercially and residentially.

The 94,000 square foot MegaMart is meant to be the drawing card for the centre.

Azan, who updated the city on the project at the monthly general meeting of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday evening said he had encountered several bureaucratic delays.

"This project has been a challenge from before ground broke and it is a lesson into how not to do things by the authorities of this country," he said.

Too many investors

"There are too many investors who want to do business in Jamaica who are being frustrated by red tape and bureaucracy. Our institutions, which relate directly with investors - both local and foreign, must make it clear by their manner and willingness to serve that Jamaica is open for business."

The new MegaMart, which Azan had said was to be the largest of the three, will employ 250 workers.

The other two are in Portmore, St. Catherine and Waterloo Road, both of which employ 600.

A year ago when the project got off the ground, Azan had anticipated that the shopping centre would have cost US$13 million, while the build out of MegaMart - stock and equipment - would have added US$4 million to US$5 million more.

Delays

The centre's opening was set back twice. Azan missed an August 2007 deadline, which was set after his initial year-end 2006 date became unworkable. The permits took nine months longer than anticipated.

Azan, who also owns the Bashco haberdashery stores, plans to rent the shops he is building.

A year ago he projected that MegaMart Catherine Hall will pull in annual sales of $1.5 billion to become the biggest money earner of the three stores.

business@gleanerjm.com