Two Acres Beside a Downtown Church: The Anglican Diocese Sells Kingston Land to a Soap Maker

• Blue Power Group agreed to buy two acres from the Anglican Diocese on Victoria Avenue, Kingston
• The land sits beside St Michael’s Anglican Church, across from Blue Power’s main office
• The company planned warehousing for its own use and for third-party tenants
• The price was not disclosed while the deal was being completed

In October 2021 the Gleaner reported a rare public example of a Jamaican denomination selling land for commercial use. Blue Power Group, the Kingston-based soap maker, was acquiring two acres of property from the Anglican Diocese on Victoria Avenue in downtown Kingston.

The land lies next to St Michael’s Anglican Church and across the road from Blue Power’s main office. Senior business reporter Steven Jackson wrote that the company intended to use it for warehousing, both for its own operations and for third-party tenants.

Director Jeffrey Hall explained the logic. “The location is adjacent to our facility and bodes well with our expansion plan in downtown Kingston,” he said. “It is a big enough property to allow for more than one usage.” The price was not disclosed, and Hall said the transaction was still in progress when the story ran.

The purchase built on earlier moves by the company on the same street. In 2018 Blue Power had bought properties at numbers 4 and 6 Victoria Avenue. The Gleaner noted that the company was also dealing with revenue pressure from long-running litigation with Dominica Coconut Products Successors Limited over soap imports and tariffs.

Churches rarely say much in public about selling land, which makes this deal worth noting. For the Anglican Church, a major historic landholder, two acres in downtown Kingston is an asset that can either sit idle or be turned into income for ministry. For church members, at home and in the diaspora, it raises reasonable questions about how such decisions are made, how the proceeds are used and whether churches could sometimes prefer housing or community uses over warehousing. For investors watching downtown Kingston’s renewal, it shows that church land in the old business district can come onto the market.

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