LUCEA, HANOVER — Hanover is racing toward a tourism upswing, but one of its crown-jewel heritage projects is stuck at the starting line.
Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) head Wade Mars has publicly prodded Lucea’s mayor, Councillor Sheridan Samuels, to approve municipal papers that would green-light restoration work at 18th-century Fort Charlotte. Standing before residents at Thursday’s unveiling of the newly refurbished Lord’s Multi-purpose Court in Malcolm Heights, Mars reminded the crowd that “pen-on-paper” is all that separates the fort from a full makeover.
The fort, a Georgian-era battery erected to guard Jamaica’s north-west coast during King George III’s reign, is dotted with ageing cannons that TPDCo hopes to conserve in partnership with the Jamaica National Heritage Trust. Mars envisions turning the seaside bastion into “an all-day heritage playground”—guided tours, green spaces, and modern amenities included.
Mayor Samuels, for his part, dismissed the appeal as political grandstanding. He insists the corporation has already asked TPDCo to meet and finalise project details—a meeting that, he says, the agency skipped. “If delays exist, they’re not at this desk,” Samuels remarked. He also noted he missed Thursday’s ceremony after receiving his invitation only hours earlier.
Court revamp signals bigger ambitions
The tug-of-war over Fort Charlotte overshadowed the ribbon-cutting itself, where Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett and Member of Parliament Tamika Davis praised the community facility as a model “spruce-up” initiative. The complex now sports a fresh basketball-netball court beside its football pitch; sanitation blocks and spectator seating are slated for phase two. Until those fixtures arrive, Bishop Robert Williams of Lucea New Testament Church of God has opened his church restrooms to athletes and fans—an offer Mars promised to repay with support for the church’s own tourism potential.
Davis, who championed the project, tied the upgrade to her broader plan to create safe, social hubs for Hanoverian youth. Negril Area Destination Assurance Council chair Richard Wallace added that healthy hometowns produce happier tourism workers—16 per cent of Negril’s workforce lives in Hanover.
Hanover’s tourism boom on the horizon
Minister Bartlett used the occasion to preview a building blitz poised to reposition Hanover as “the most consequential tourism parish in Jamaica.” Among the headline projects:
- Princess Hotels & Resorts, Green Island – 2,000 rooms and Jamaica’s first casino-integrated resort.
- Viva Wyndham, Rhodes Hall – 1,000 rooms.
- Grand Palladium expansion, outside Lucea – nearly 1,000 additional luxury suites.
The minister also highlighted unprecedented worker-housing schemes: 500 rooms within the Princess complex and 600 homes financed by Palladium.
A race against rust
With billions of tourism dollars en route, advocates argue that Fort Charlotte must not be left languishing. Each day the paperwork idles, cannons corrode and visitor dollars drift elsewhere. For a parish on the cusp of superstardom, the message is clear: heritage and hospitality must advance together—or risk moving forward one project while another falls behind.
