Moon Palace pledges housing, beach upgrade for locals in MoBay expansion

WESTERN BUREAU:

With ground broken for Jamaica’s tallest planned resort – the US$700-million Moon Palace Grand Montego Bay – on Monday, the development’s most talked-about feature is not in its blueprints. It is the US$5 million Palace Resorts will put into housing, education, and public recreation for the surrounding community.

Palace Resorts CEO Gibran Chapur announced that the company has purchased 28 acres to build staff housing and will fund upgrades to the John Rollins Success Primary School and the redevelopment of Success Beach in Rose Hall into a world-class public facility.

“This is not just an investment in a hotel,” Chapur told the audience. “It is an investment in the people of Jamaica, in their opportunities and in their communities.”

The housing commitment addresses one of the north coast’s long-standing challenges. For decades, many hotel workers have faced long commutes from distant communities due to the lack of affordable housing near resort areas.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness called Chapur’s pledge “a fundamental shift in how we think about tourism development”, stressing that decent worker accommodation helps ensure that “the smile in hospitality is genuine”.

“The smile must be real, not forced,” Holness said. “After making the beds in hotels, workers should be able to go home to a bed of their own.”

Public-beach access, another sensitive national issue, will also get a boost. The Success Beach will be redeveloped jointly by Palace Resorts and the Tourism Enhancement Fund, offering facilities on par with Montego Bay’s Harmony Beach Park.

“Every Jamaican must have access to the island’s beaches,” Holness said, noting that the Government is expanding the number and quality of public-beach facilities.

Innovation Township

The 33-storey hotel, which will eclipse The Jamaica Pegasus (18 floors) as the nation’s tallest hotel, will feature overwater bungalows, 13 specialty restaurants, the Caribbean’s largest spa, a FlowRider surf simulator, and a water park. It is expected to provide employment for 3,000 people.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett said Chapur’s social commitments tie directly into the Government’s ‘Innovation Township’ plan for Success, designed to integrate housing, education, healthcare, and small-business opportunities into one development zone.

“This is about creating a circular economy where tourism feeds the community and the community feeds tourism,” Bartlett said. “We are going to ensure that farmers, craft makers, and service providers supply the resort so that the economic benefits stay right here.”

The township plan includes daycare facilities, a health centre, a fire station, and expanded police services, along with commercial spaces and improved sports and recreation areas. Bartlett said the township model will become a blueprint for other resort areas.

With multiple hotel projects planned for the Rose Hall–Success corridor, Bartlett estimates that the area will soon have 10,000 rooms and more than 25,000 tourism jobs.

Since Palace Resorts entered Jamaica 10 years ago with Moon Palace Jamaica in Ocho Rios, annual visitor arrivals have grown from about 2.5 million to more than 4.4 million. Holness credited “deliberate and instrumental” policy decisions, including the Urban Development Corporation’s strategic divestment of prime lands for private-sector development.

The prime minister also warned against labour exploitation in the sector, urging that wage increases be tied to productivity and value creation rather than inflation alone.

“We are not seeking cheap labour to create profit or capital,” Holness said. “Labour and capital must both benefit from the value created.”

Chapur said construction would begin immediately and that the resort, when complete, will set a new benchmark for Caribbean hospitality.

“When we first came here 10 years ago, we fell in love with the culture and the community,” he said. “This is our second home.”

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com