Factories Corporation of Jamaica (FCJ) is constructing 100,000 square feet of new factory space at Naggo Head in St Catherine, a $500 million project that will span five acres.

ACS E-Services Group will take up 40,000 square feet of the new space immediately, but the company that passed from Jamaican to American ownership last year, is not saying the level of investment being made in the expansion.

ACS paid Patrick Casserley and his partners US$85 million for the company, which Casserley continues to head.

Factories Corporation will develop the new space in two phases over two years, starting in this financial year.

Initially government officials had announced that ACS E-Services would have been consolidating its operations at the 'two towers' being built at Naggo Head, but the information and communication technology company told the Financial Gleaner that it was in fact adding to the operational space it already has there, creating another 100 jobs in the process atop the 4,000 said to be on the company's payroll up to earlier this year.

"ACS E-Services is not consolidating or closing any operations, but rather expanding by adding a new facility," said Carol DeMatteo, ACS corporate communications director, via email from the company's headquarters in the US.

Space growth

ACS E-Services currently occupies 50,000 square feet of office space at Naggo Head; the new space will grow that to 90,000 square feet.

DeMatteo declined comment on the capital outlay to expand, but FCJ charges US$10 per square foot per year for office space in the Naggo Head area, which would amount to US$400,000 or J$36 million annually for the amount of space that ASC E-Services is taking up.

FCJ controls approximately 109 acres of vacant land and some 1.88 million square feet of factory space at 36 locations in 11 parishes.

Only five per cent of its tenants are in the ICT sector.

The larger portion, 53 per cent, is in manufacturing.

Industry Minister Karl Samuda said earlier this year that any new space FCJ puts into inventory would be a replacement for square footage the state-owned company plans to retire elsewhere, but the Financial Gleaner was unable to ascertain immediately whether this would apply to the Naggo Head project.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com