Travelling is no longer an insider’s luxury: it’s the new passport for culture cognoscenti, hunters of authentic cool and the place where it’s all converging is on Jamaica’s exquisite north-eastern coast in Portland. This lush, forest-to-ocean Elysium has been dubbed the “Jamaican Riviera” for its natural beauty, glamour and cultural legacy. For the record, the region is equal parts sequestered haven and historical landmark; not only was it the Hollywood hotbed of the 1960s, but also was the quintessential birthplace of Jamaican tourism.
Over the years, the area’s unspoiled beauty, pristine seascapes and host of natural attractions have drawn sizable international and local tourism. Everyone from high profile celebrities and international royalty to creative visionaries and adventurous travellers have frequented Portland since the early 1900s. By 1913, the capital, Port Antonio, was hosting 11,000 visitors a year and, during the 1960s, it was playing host to luminaries such as Grace Kelly, Errol Flynn, Elizabeth Taylor and the Aga Khan.
Thanks to a visionary new team of stakeholders, developers, music industry veterans and architects, Port Antonio
is poised for a rather electric renaissance on course to make it one of the most sought after destinations in the Caribbean.
The team behind the Port Antonio vision includes native Portlander and international business guru Michael Lee-Chin who has partnered with British-born music industry veteran and hotelier Jon Baker to revive Port Antonio to its former apex. “Our goal is to put the region back on the map from a tourism aspect,” explained Baker. “But we also want to generally bring about a Port Antonio renaissance which will ultimately encourage stakeholders to come back into the region and create new businesses so that the economy becomes self-sustaining in its own right.
We see tourism as our cornerstone for resurrecting Port Antonio to its former glory days.” The Geejam Collection is in charge of making that happen.” Included in the Collection are the iconic Trident Castle, the historic Trident Hotel, the hip, ultra-modern Geejam, and Jamaica’s largest natural spring-fed area – the
Blue Lagoon.
In Spring 2013, the Geejam Collection hosted the official launch of the newly renovated Trident Hotel. Said Baker, “We have a young, dedicated and very talented team of architects, contractors, chefs and managers who have really devoted all their energies to making this happen. The excitement surrounding this and the growth opportunities that will follow are palpable.” Baker made notable mention of Vidal Dowding, of Atelier-Vidal Ltd., as well as contractor Ian McNally of Relmac Construction.
“From the outset, the architectural team literally moved on site to begin working in unison with the contractor so that any adaptations and changes could be made then and there, thus saving on costs,” Baker disclosed. Dowding described the on-the-ground process as “a uniquely challenging experience, which involved intense creative design sessions with the architectural team and client that immediately manifested itself into built form as we fed the contractor with details almost daily. The greater part of the structure existed when we moved in, and, being on site for hours each day allowed us to see things from a new perspective that helped us conceptualize a great set of ideas which focused on the connectivity between indoor and outdoor spaces.”