ON February 10, 1993 Portmore welcomed the Portmore Mall, the largest covered indoor mall in the Caribbean. In this the year of their 25th anniversary, the Jamaica Observer decided to find out what has become of the pink pioneer.

Then home to more than 60 stores, the mall included numerous clothing stores, a supermarket, a movie theatre, a pharmacy, two record stores, a nightclub, a food court, an amphitheatre and a skating rink.

The Portmore Mall quickly became the central hub for shopping and entertainment in the then still developing city.

At the time, it was also the only mall in Jamaica that was completely air-conditioned. The mall is ideally located, after the descent of the Causeway bridge and at the very “entrance” to Portmore.

It has now been 25 years, and since then, the once bustling mall, is still just as busy, but a far cry from what it once was in its glory days.

Portmore’s only movie theatre, after being closed for years, has now been replaced by a variety store, selling everything from household supplies to clothing and detergents, while the nightclub is currently a hair and make-up supply store.

Several of the other stores on the plaza are now seen functioning without air conditioning and are obliged to leave their doors open or use standing fans.

The parking lot has become a kind of transportation hub, inundated with numerous route taxis, offering transportation to locations often underserved by regular bus service. There is also the constant presence of vendors on the front of the mall.

Since then, the mall has lost its monopoly as several smaller malls have shot up around throughout the municipality — capitalising on the shopping needs of the quickly growing Portmore community.

The Shopper’s Fair Supermarket has regular long lines as does the KFC restaurant located on the corner.

The halls of the mall are also generally full, and the food court at lunchtime is always busy.

In an interview, the manager of the mall, Basil Eastman, as well as its chairman, Norman Walker, shed some light on the mall as it was, its current state as well as the plans for the future.

Eastman explained that currently, there are a total of 107 shops on the mall — up from the initial 60 when the mall originally opened.

“Some people have divided and some people have combined their shops.”

In addition, “The shops once all had central air conditioning, but this was changed because of the high cost of energy, so we had to allow the shops to maintain their own AC. The mall corridors were also air-conditioned but that has also had to be discontinued because of costs,” explained Eastman.

For Walker, the Portmore Mall was “the one-stop shop, it was the hub where you housed everything under one roof — utilities, financials, Churches Co-operative Credit Union, large entities like the JTA, pharmacy, a bookstore, Western Union”.

Both men also agree that back then it was a pioneer in terms of design, being the largest covered mall in the Caribbean.

Today, though many argue it has deteriorated, Eastman believes, “Portmore Mall is still the mall of choice.

It’s the mall where you get everything. It has changed a bit, but has (almost) all the utilities (Flow, NWC, JPS).

There is Singer, and though KFC is not (technically a part of the mall) it is within the mall. We have a a variety of things on the mall.

The Shoppers Fair Supermarket, as far as I know, is possibly one of the leading Shoppers Fair locations (in terms of traffic).”

But both gentlemen have expressed that despite all the positives improvement is needed in several areas.

SCHEDULED IMPROVEMENTS

When asked about any possible scheduled improvements, Eastman explained that there are plans in the pipeline.

“The board is looking at redesigning the front of the mall and plans to do beautification activities to give the mall a 21st century look…We have tried to look at the front area. We spent $150,000 at the bus bay to put in palms.”

In an effort to make the location more functional and welcoming, Eastman is also investigating how they can better utilise the amphitheatre, a concern particularly relevant to him as a board member of LEDMAC — the Local Economic Development Committee for Portmore — a group of stakeholders who are responsible for exploring the opportunities for development of the city.

“LEDMAC is looking at the possibilities that exist for the amphitheatre under their tourist community development product, in terms of using the location for dramatic productions, as part of one of the attractions,” he said A total rebranding is also in the plans, explained Walker.

“We are looking now to rebrand. In terms of the aesthetics, the design is already in place, so we hope that implementation will come soon. Currently we are looking at rebranding and improving our marketing strategy, and in that regard we are in the process of signing an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with an advertising agency to work with us to create a new image for the mall.”

RUNDOWN MALL

The Jamaica Observer also asked both men to address concerns of the location becoming “rundown”.

They explained that there are a number of factors at play such as the consistent fall-off in regular payments of maintenance costs.

“Individuals don’t often pay on time, there is a lot of delinquency as the shops are owned by the individuals,” explained Eastman.

“Board members are actually shop owners, this is almost like a gated community. The Portmore shopping centre is a company that facilitates the maintenance of the mall.

It’s really the maintenance fees that manages and improves the mall. Therefore it is important for people to pay and pay on time. It is unique in almost every way” Eastman said.

“You own the store, so you are free to sell. Previously when it was managed by Portmore Community Development Company — when they had owned the mall, they had full control and could determine that you won’t have six hairdressers. They restricted what came in. Now because individuals have bought their stores, we don’t have the right to tell them whom to sell to or rent to. We can only encourage them not to sell to any and anybody… try to find out the kind of business they will be carrying to the mall,” Eastman continued.

For Walker, “It comes back down to financing, the shops are owned by individuals who have run up huge debts in terms of maintenance which limit our ability to do what we want to do.”

He explained that the situation is only made more challenging as it is difficult to collect.

“We are constrained by what we can do to collect. If we could get governmental support that could put in the type of laws that could help us to collect maintenance fees — as currently the only avenue we have now is the court. We are relying on the government to put in place laws to help us through this challenge,” he continued.

“We need a law akin to the Strata Act that governs situations like ours,” added Curtis Duhaney, the shop owner of Jewello Ltd, and board member.

For both gentlemen the issue of taxi men and disorderly conduct is also a serious concern and they are taking steps to remedy the situation, as it is not something the mall supports.

“I must express my concern regarding the illegal and unruly taxi operators, we are having challenges there to get them to conform to order…also the illegal vending — these are challenges we hope will be sorted out by all stakeholders,” said Norman.

“The taxi men are a law to themselves,” said Basil, “they attack our barrier men, and the support of the police is not what it should be. They are aggressive and violent, especially on the other side of the mall.”

With regard to the vending, “…the mayor and myself have spoken, spoken to the police, spoken to the NSWMA (National Solid Waste Management Authority).

He explained that they are limited in the help available for us as it is a private mall given public access.

However, we can’t just push them off the mall when they have done something wrong.”

Eastman explained that the layout and size of the mall itself also proves to limit what actions can be taken by the management to address these issues.

“We are the only mall built with so much open space that you can just walk into,” he explained, referring to the fact that with other malls, you are either in the store or outside.

However, with the Portmore Mall, you can actually be inside the mall and not necessarily in a store.

“Portmore Mall is also like a 24-hour location, always open, so we have to have 24-hour security,” he continued.

For Walker, the attitude to the property is a cultural and disciplinary one. “It’s a culture. Some people don’t understand, they don’t have the ownership concept that they are the real owners and not the office staff. They should grasp that they are the owners of the mall, whatever becomes of the mall is their responsibility.”

He also blames the breakdown in discipline nationally as the reason they are having such an issue at the mall.

“I have discovered over the years a breakdown in discipline that has permeated Jamaica. The type of people who come in and want to vandalise or smoke ganja in the mall. We are trying to see how best we can minimise the indiscipline. That is our big challenge,” he shared.

“To earn money we rent space, for instance the amphitheatre, or the green space by Mother’s. But it is a small income,” Eastman said.

However, to increase this income, they have decided to explore advertising opportunities the space may have to offer “…because of the number of people that come here. For instance, we are looking at redesigning this sign…(and) are looking at using here (the side of the mall area) now for advertising”.

The gentlemen are the first to admit that the 25th anniversary of the location almost slipped by unnoticed, but now they are going to explore celebrating it, especially as it coincides with the many positive upgrading and improvement efforts they have planned for the mall soon.

“We will look at it, it currently slipped under the radar, so now that it is back on the table we will all look at it and see if we can recognise the milestone,” said Norman.