LP Azar Limited plans to transform the property that formerly housed The Gleaner Company (Media) Limited into a hardware, manufacturing, and training centre.“We’re looking at beginning immediately,” Andrew Azar, principal at LP Azar Limited, said in a Financial Gleaner interview. “We’re going to work this year as hard as we can, so hopefully we’ll have her ready by the first quarter of 2027.”After operating there for nearly six decades, The Gleaner’s parent company, RJRGLEANER Communications Group, sold the building to LP Azar Limited, while consolidating its staff and operations at its Lyndhurst Road campus.Azar said he will establish a hardware distribution centre on the section of the property at the East Street entrance, where The Gleaner once had its warehousing and loading area. The offices, which occupied four levels above the ground floor, will be refurbished to house LP Azar Limited’s offices alongside tenants.“Those former offices will be refurbished, and then we’ll put some of our offices down there, plus rent out the extra space,” Azar said, adding that the former gym and sports club will be transformed into a trade training centre, accommodating welding, plumbing, carpentry and possibly garment construction.He said the centre will be geared specifically towards engaging youth in the central Kingston area.The property was advertised for US$8.54 million, or about $1.4 billion, on realtor sites. Azar, however, declined to disclose the purchase price.“It’s definitely over what the valuation was, because there was a bidding process and several other people were bidding for the building,” he recalled.He does not have an estimate for the cost of refurbishment. Any figure given “would just be a pie-in-the-sky figure”, he said.“We need to dress her up a little bit,” Azar said.The Gleaner building at 7 North Street in Kingston is 57 years old. Construction began in 1967, and the building was officially completed and fully opened in 1969. For its first 135 years, The Gleaner Company was headquartered on Harbour Street before relocating to North and East streets. The site spans roughly 2.5 to 3 acres and features a five-storey commercial complex that originally housed the corporate offices, a warehouse, and a printing plant.Azar told the Financial Gleaner that the vision to transform the old Gleaner offices is part of a bigger agenda. He previously took over the landmark Victoria Pier, which for years had been inhabited by the homeless and a few goats. Victoria Pier is 69 years old, and the current structure was officially opened on November 6, 1957.The pier has evolved over the decades, transitioning from a bustling historical landing dock into a revitalised dining and entertainment waterfront complex as part of the Kingston Waterfront Development. Azar said that when he took over and refurbished Victoria Pier, he deliberately employed unattached youth to dissuade them from criminal activity.“Right now, if you see some of those people, they have a family now; one of them has a son going to a top-tier school, they have a little car, and so on,” Azar said, adding that it is not a genius thought that people want an opportunity.“When a man doesn’t have an opportunity, he turns to the gun, to stealing, and begging,” he said. “If you give a man the opportunity, the odds are he’s going to work.”He encouraged the private sector to start redeveloping derelict properties acquired over the decades.“Wishing is not going to help; it needs the private sector to buy the old buildings and invest in Jamaica, and to convert the buildings into something nice, starting from the waterfront and coming right up. That’s the only way. It won’t happen by wishing,” Azar said.neville.graham@gleanerjm.com