Post-Gilbert’s Legacy Ends: Q4 1995 and Jamaica’s Resort Reconstruction Completes

Briefing

• Post-Gilbert north coast resort reconstruction substantially complete by Q4 1995.
• Room capacity exceeded pre-Gilbert levels; some properties modernised significantly.
• New resort concepts and larger properties entering the market post-reconstruction.
• Environmental improvements from reconstruction mixed; some properties updated standards.
• Development pipeline filling for next generation of projects beyond reconstruction.

Hurricane Gilbert’s August 1988 impact on Jamaica’s north coast had been devastating for the tourism infrastructure that was, by that point, the economic foundation of many north coast communities. The reconstruction that followed over the subsequent years had been the primary driver of coastal construction activity in the early 1990s, and by the final quarter of 1995 that reconstruction was substantially complete. The north coast that emerged from seven years of post-Gilbert investment was not simply a restored version of what Gilbert had damaged; it was in some respects a more modern and more intensively developed coast than what had existed before the storm.

The reconstruction had provided opportunities to improve some properties’ environmental performance: updated sewage treatment systems, better construction techniques, more thoughtful siting of new structures relative to the beach profile. Some properties had used the necessity of reconstruction to make improvements that would not have been economically justified without the hurricane forcing the matter. But reconstruction had also, in some cases, rebuilt on sites and in configurations that pre-dated modern environmental standards, reinstating problems rather than solving them.

The New Development Phase

With reconstruction substantially complete, the north coast development industry was transitioning from a repair-and-replace mode to a new development mode. The investment pipeline that would define the late 1990s and early 2000s resort boom was beginning to fill in late 1995: parcels of undeveloped or underdeveloped coastal land that had been held through the reconstruction period were now being assessed for development potential; the all-inclusive brands that had performed well through the reconstruction years were looking for expansion opportunities; and international investors who had watched Jamaica’s recovery were re-entering the market with new projects. The completion of the reconstruction cycle was thus the beginning of a new phase of development pressure that would ultimately make the access and environmental debates of the early 1990s more acute, not less.

Related: Property Market Analysis | Jamaica Tourist Board

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