MONTEGO BAY, St James — Organisers of the annual Reggae Sumfest stage show say that they will submit a proposal by next week to the Urban Development Corporation for the long-term lease of the festival site, at Catherine Hall in Montego Bay.

“We’re putting together an application now … by next week we should have it completed,” chairman of Summerfest Productions Ltd, Robert Russell told the Observer .

The UDC began advertising for a lessee on Sunday and the deadline for proposals is May 17. Up to Thursday, the UDC said they had received four expressions of interest but had not yet received any actual applications.

The interested parties, they said, are from Kingston and Montego Bay.

The corporation estimates that the new lease agreement with the successful applicant should be in place within the next three to four months. The figures involved, the UDC said, would depend on the development plans submitted by the successful lessee.

The approved applicant has to provide development plans for the site, show prior experience in operating a similar facility and proof of the finances needed to make it viable.

“(The lessee will be expected to) upgrade and successfully operate the facility, preferably in a manner that will promote Jamaican entertainment and culture, locally and overseas,” the UDC said in response to queries from the Observer.

They placed their costs of “establishing the (existing) basic infrastructure” at $20 million and indicated that they would not pump any additional funds into the venue before it is leased.

The site is now used once a year, when the reggae festival is staged in the summer months. It is basically an open space, surrounded by a painted zinc fence and the lack of infrastructure has long been a sore point for Summerfest productions who say they rent the space for about $1 million and spend another $1.5 million to upgrade it every year.

Russell, who did not reveal too much of Summerfest’s plans, said if their application was successful their aim would be to ensure that the site was upgraded enough to attract other show producers.

“We would try to bring it up to a standard so that it wouldn’t cost others so much just to come in and use it,” he said.

Russell added that if Summerfest Productions Ltd obtained the 20-year lease, it might influence their decision to stage an additional show in the winter months.

“We would try to do more than one festival a year and we could have a winter show,” he said. “There has been talk of that for years but the costs are so prohibitive that we have not been able to get it off the ground. But if we had a venue like that we would have to utilise it more than once a year.”

But first they have to successfully tie down the long-term renewable lease. The UDC, meanwhile, has made it clear that if another applicant were chosen, it should not affect the Sumfest staging.

“There should be no change, except that the promoters of Sumfest will now make the necessary arrangements with the tenant to stage their function,” the UDC said.