Untapped potential

Scotia executive welcomes efforts to revitalise downtown Kingston

DIRECTOR OF corporate responsibility at the Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica, Joylene Griffiths-Irving, has expressed a commitment to assist any effort which will lead to developing the untapped potential of downtown Kingston.

Scotia has called downtown Kingston home for decades and Griffiths-Irving said it has no plan to leave the area.

"Our headquarters is here in downtown and we have been here long before a lot of other persons decided to come here. This is where we belong and we are not moving, downtown is our home," Griffiths-Irving told The Gleaner on Sunday as she enjoyed brunch on the Kingston waterfront.

But she accepted that there was an urgent need for additional facilities in the commercial district.

"For us even to have lunch in the daytime is a challenge to find somewhere. We have visitors even coming from our head office in Toronto (Canada) and there is no place downtown ... that we could take someone for lunch, so we head up town," the Scotia director told The Gleaner.

"There is a lot of potential here and we are definitely in support of any redevelopment of downtown Kingston," added Griffiths-Irving who is also the executive director of the Scotiabank Jamaica Foundation.

She noted that Scotia has more than 150 employees at its headquarters located at the corner of Duke and Port Royal Streets and has been at the forefront of efforts to redevelop downtown Kingston over the years.

According to Griffiths-Irving, Scotia has contributed generously to efforts by the Urban Development Corporation to improve downtown in the past.

"I remember us contributing $25 million for the redevelopment of the Rae Town area, and that is just one of the many things that we have done."

She said Scotia is also committed to improving the lives of persons living in downtown Kingston.

"One of our projects of the foundation is education and every year we pick at least 10 students from inner-city communities and most of those are from downtown, because it is important for us to contribute to the education of these children," said Griffiths-Irving.