THE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade will spend an initial $450 million to relocate its head office downtown in the next fiscal year.

The move is part of Government’s cost-saving measure to relocate ministry’s and agencies to cheaper offices downtown.

“The final cost of the building is still to be determined as the project is still at the preliminary stage. The initial estimate of the cost is $447 million,” stated Wilton Dyer, public relations officer at the ministry. The amount includes the price of the land, initial geological assessments and architectural surveys and design; and tendering for local consultants. Of the total amount, the “Chinese government will offer $292 million as a grant” and the Jamaican government will finance the remainder. The new building will be on Port Royal Street downtown and will contain among other things: Conference rooms, training facilities, parking lots, lounges, canteen, a library, and holding area for children.

The building will be a high rise, but Dyer said that the number of floors are yet to be disclosed. He said it would be known “at the conclusion of the design brief around mid-March”.

The ministry pays a monthly rental of “$2.7 million inclusive of maintenance” for its current New Kingston office. Once the ministry moves, the New Kingston office will revert to its owners, the Development Bank of Jamaica, stated Dyer. Construction is expected to begin next financial year.

The Ministry had been initially allocated $54.2 million in the 2008/09 Estimates of Expenditures, for a new building. JIS News stated in 2008 that the “purpose of the project was to provide customised office facilities for the ministry, which would adequately support its needs in terms of accommodation for staff, meeting and conference facilities and waiting areas for diplomats and other visitors; to contribute to the redevelopment of downtown Kingston by virtue of the relocation of the ministry to that area; and to obviate the cost to Government arising from a high level of officerental in New Kingston, where the Ministry is currently located”.

According to Prime Minister Bruce Golding, the new foreign affairs offices will be constructed on the site on which the Area Four Police is currently located, and thus, the design will incorporate a new Area Four Headquarters on the same site.

The Spectrum Management Authority’s already moved its office from New Kingston to Harbour Street in Kingston, in December. The move is said to have effected a saving of $2 million a month from rent.