Kingston Waterfront Real Estate Market Assessment
World Bank
HR&A’s comprehensive market assessment for Kingston’s waterfront helped structure a $12 million World Bank loan that will transform 85 acres along Ocean Boulevard with a 1.1-mile multiuse waterfront park. Working with Archer and Associates Consultants for Sustainable Cities on behalf of the World Bank’s City Resilience Program, our feasibility analysis and financial modeling positioned this project to improve public space access, foster social cohesion, and attract private investment benefiting over 700,000 residents.
The Government of Jamaica sought to transform a stretch of Kingston’s waterfront south of downtown, but needed rigorous analysis to understand urban redevelopment potential and structure public interventions effectively. HR&A and AACSC conducted comprehensive existing conditions and real estate market assessment examining how waterfront park development, public space upgrades, and strategic planning and governance interventions could catalyze broader area transformation. We formulated three redevelopment scenarios and produced detailed financial models assessing feasibility, performance, and residual value of publicly owned land for each scenario.
This analysis served as critical input to the design and structuring of the Kingston Waterfront Improvement Project loan, amounting to $12M, approved by the World Bank in October 2024. Our work provided the analytical foundation demonstrating how strategic public investment in waterfront infrastructure could unlock private development while delivering substantial community benefits. The resulting project positions Kingston to enhance public space access, strengthen social cohesion, and catalyze economic activity across downtown, with impacts expected to reach hundreds of thousands of residents across both project phases.
