In his student days at De Carteret College in the cool plateau of Mandeville, the Hon. Maurice Facey, O.M. would
divide his non-academic time between sporting pursuits (he excelled in track & field and football), and an activity
from which his most enduring legacy was built - and is still being established. He spent long hours executing
drawings of entire cities, complete with hotels, offices and homes.
These intricate works of industrial art would presage a real estate development empire that today encompasses a
large part of New Kingston, the Downtown area, and the Tony confines of Manor Park. Facey completed his education
in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War (he did not see combat duty) before returning to the family
business, C.B. Facey & Company.
Under the “benevolent dictatorship” of his father, Facey worked his way up through the ranks of the general
supply enterprise. It was the period of early rising, quick thinking and committing millions of hardware items to memory.
He laid the groundwork for what would become Jamaica Property Company around this time. Facey also cemented his social
standing through his marriage to Valerie Hart-Collins. After convincing his father to sell the family concern to Seagram’s
of Canada in 1959, Facey begun his acquisitive period in the then largely undeveloped areas surrounding the former Knutsford
Park race course (tourism innovator and developer Abe Issa had initiated the transition of horse racing from Knutsford out
to the Caymanas Estates.
The merger of Jamaica property with the newly established Pan-Jamaican Investments Limited provided the capital platform
for Facey to deepen his property development interest and bring some of the structure in his drawings to life.
High-rise apartment towers at Manor Park and at the intersection of Hope and Trafalgar Roads (Abbey Court) preceded residential
developments in Acadia, Norbrook and Drumblair among other locations.
Among his more renowned residential acquisitions was the 1961 purchase (for a reported 30,000 pounds) of Drumblair, the
long time home of National Hero, the late Norman Washington Manley and his family. Faced with mounting debts, Manley sold
the property and proceeded to establish a new residence "Regardless" on a toehold of the Drumblair estate.
Along the Knutsford stretch (now Knutsford Boulevard or alternatively the New Kingston strip) Jamaica Property put up
the monolithic Imperial Life building (later re-named -and expanded - as the Pan-Jamaican Building) the Dyoll Building and
others brought multi-story structures to the New Kingston area in much the same way as the Scotia Bank centre and the Air
Jamaica Building revamped the Kingston waterfront.
With “go-go” 60s drawing to a close, Facey perceived the need to improve and sustain his cash flow, even as his physical
assets appreciated. He tapped into this in-depth knowledge of hardware and his natural affinity for trading to acquire
manufacturer Wherry Wharf and in 1969, he finalized the purchase of Hardware & Lumber Limited, in what has been described
as the first successful hostile takeover in the country's business history. To bolster his ongoing acquisitions, the learned
and urbane entrepreneur cultivated relationships with movers and shakers in the world’s financial capitals.
In the late 1980s, concerned with the deterioration of the downtown area (which, ironically, some have blamed on the ascendancy
of New Kingston as a commercial and professional hub), Facey was part of the cohort of influential businessmen that launched the
Kingston Restoration Company in 1986. Initially concerned with revitalizing the city through rehabilitating blighted buildings,
the company has since broadened its focus to include interventions in inner-city communities in several parts of the Corporate Area.
Facey himself has supported a number of philanthropic ventures in the arts, the preservation of national shrines, and other socio-cultural institution.
Facey had devoted himself to another passion in his early days: farming. From his entrepreneurial produce business amid the mango
walks that lined the Jamaica College campus, Facey later expanded his agricultural pursuits to floral exports, cattle rearing and
sugar production and sales.
Though nominally retired, Facey, even entering his 80s, remains active as a businessman, business consultant and philanthropist.
He serves on a number of corporate and civil boards and, like many corporate titans, has his share of honorary citations, both local and overseas.
But it can hardly be as gratifying as to walk along the New Kingston thoroughfare and look up at his late urban vision come to life, or to savour the
value of his investments from the vantage point afforded by the penthouse suite of the Pan-jam tower.
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