“Put Up a Five-Storey Boarding Accommodation”: Mandeville’s Mayor Tells a 60-Year-Old Church College to Build Up

• Mandeville’s mayor urged Church Teachers’ College to expand as it marked 60 years
• He suggested a five-storey boarding block for students
• Some areas can now go from 30 to 50, even 80, habitable rooms per acre
• The college’s property and building were bought in 1965 with money raised by a St James custos

Church Teachers’ College (CTC) used its 60th anniversary celebrations in Mandeville to look back on six decades of training teachers. The town’s mayor used the same occasion to look forward, and upward, telling the institution it should be thinking about multi-storey buildings.

Mayor Donovan Mitchell told the gathering that Mandeville’s planning rules had changed. “We have a maximum of 30 habitable rooms per acre,” he said, explaining that the municipality had extended that limit in some areas to 50 habitable rooms, and that some developers “might get 80 habitable rooms”. With that in mind, he said, “the vision of Church Teachers’ College has to be putting up a five-storey boarding accommodation here”. Mandeville, he noted, is often regarded as a university town and is attractive for multi-storey buildings.

Mitchell also said talks were under way about improving the roads leading to the college to ease traffic congestion, and he spoke of plans to extend Mandeville’s commercial zone along several main roads. “Mandeville is the place to live, learn, do business, and retire,” he said.

The ceremony also recalled how the college got its home. Mark Kerr-Jarrett, executive chairman of Barnett Limited, paid tribute to his grandfather, former St James Custos Sir Francis Kerr-Jarrett, who, he said, spearheaded the fundraising and contributed to the purchase of the college’s property and building in 1965. His grandfather, he said, recognised education as “the cornerstone of a prosperous nation”. State Minister in the Ministry of Education Marsha Smith said the anniversary was a recognition of the “countless educators” the college had produced.

For anyone following property in central Jamaica, the mayor’s remarks are the real news. A jump from 30 to as many as 80 habitable rooms per acre changes what a piece of land in parts of Mandeville can carry, and student housing is one of the clearest ways to use that extra room. Church-founded colleges often sit on generous, long-held sites bought decades ago. A density change like this could turn those sites into their biggest asset, provided the institutions have plans and financing ready. Investors, returning residents and landlords near the campus should watch whether CTC takes up the challenge, because purpose-built boarding would reshape the rental market for students around it.

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