Richmond St. Ann

2 Business View Magazine It’s the Place to Live Richmond St. Ann provides first-world residential experience Upon coming across the same land encountered cen- turies earlier by famed New World pioneer Christopher Columbus, Elias Issa, a long-time fixture in the Jamai - can tourism industry, had a plan. He’d take a sprawling tract that had fallen into disre- pair through years of use as a sugar plantation, citrus farm and cattle ranch, and lift it back to the majesty that prompted Columbus to wax eloquent. “The fairest island that eyes beheld. Mountainous and the land seems to touch the sky,” the Italian-born ex - plorer is said to have written of Jamaica’s north shore. “All full of valleys, fields and plains.” But he knew it wasn’t going to get there without work. “(Issa) was doing a drive through one of the housing developments being done somewhere in Montego Bay,” said Steve Bennett, managing director of the Richmond Development Company, which is chaired by Issa and is overseeing the multi-phase project across the 530-acre spread. “He saw a lot of concrete and disorganization, and it just hit him that Jamaica needs something, develop - BEST PRACTICES IN BUSINESS