By Anthony Morgan

First Rock Capital Holdings will be expanding its footprint to Guyana through the real estate and financial services segments of the group.

Speaking on Taking Stock with Kalilah Reynolds last week, First Rock Co-Founder, Ryan Reid, said plans are far advanced to realizing that goal.

“We’re literally on the brink but I’m not at liberty to say much at this point,” he said, adding, “We have some transactions that we’re pursuing there actively and through our associate company, First Rock Global Holdings, we’re moving into Financial Services there.”

These plans follow their recent residential acquisitions in the Cayman Islands, one of four jurisdictions the company currently has operations. The other three are Jamaica, Costa Rica and the United States. 

No other markets are being targeted at this time. However, Reid said since going public a year ago, the St. Lucia-registered company has increased the number of properties in its portfolio from 12 to 21. Close to 70% of those assets are in Jamaica.

Reid said expansion forms part of the company’s asset management strategy, noting that they immediately executed some pipeline projects after raising $13 million from its Initial Public Offer (IPO). 

“We’re seeing the manifestation of those efforts which helped us to produce the commendable efforts of 2020,” he said.

“As at December 31, we had $5.5 billion in assets which is in effect half a billion more than what was targeted in 2020,” he added.

For the 12 months ending December 31, 2020, the company reported net profit of US$3.7 million. That’s an over 300% increase when compared to the US$756,735 posted for the same period a year ago.

Retreat to real estate

Reid said, despite the challenges of the pandemic, investors still see the real estate business as a “safe haven” and that has helped the company to realize those numbers.

“Investors in times of uncertainty usually retreat to safe and stable assets and it doesn’t get more stable than real estate among all asset classes, and so what we’ve seen is that with the onslaught of COVID-19, persons have been feeling quite comfortable in investing in real estate. What we’re seeing in our juridictions is that the demand for real estate has been encouraging especially in Jamaica,” he reasoned.

He said there’s no indication real estate prices will be coming down soon, especially with today’s macro economy benefiting from lower interest rates, allowing more persons to invest money in real estate assets.

“From the latest PIOJ numbers, we see that construction is up in the middle of a recession and that for us is very encouraging. Once the providers of credit remain active, the industry will remain buoyant,” he said.

At the same time, the Co-Founder said the company has not been immune to the health crisis.

He said in Costa Rica, commercial tenants who were hit hard, asked for some reprieve on their rent, which was granted for a couple months in 2020.

Cayman, on the other hand, has had better luck.

“What we’re seeing is a re-migration of sorts to Cayman so it’s a totally unique situation where cayman is concerned,” said Reid.

Construction started on luxury homes in St. Andrew

Meanwhile in Jamaica, Reid said construction is well advanced with the company’s latest project.

First Rock is building some 12 stand-alone homes on 3.5 acres of land off Wellington Drive in Kingston, across from the US Embassy.

Each home will be situated on a quarter acre lot and will include a swimming pool, up to 8000 sq feet, and double master bedrooms.

The price of these homes is yet to be determined.

“The price point is beyond $100 million. We’ve reduced the density because it was initially 16 [units]. It’s an exclusive luxury community that we’re going to build. We’re getting a lot of interest so we’re allowing that interest to determine the final price,” said Reid.

Reid said he’s expecting a full turnaround of the real estate industry by late 2021 with the introduction of vaccines in the different jurisdictions.

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