Updated: How "Connected" is PM Holness To The Housing Project Said To Have Been In Breach?
This story has been updated mostly to reflect the fact that the KSAMC on Friday announced that it had approved an amended building application from Estatebridge, regularizing the breaches, so the development is now deemed “compliant.” Even with the update, the essence of the story remains intact since it’s about evaluating the level of connectedness by Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness to the housing development.
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After the release of an Integrity Commission report that connected him to a housing project found to be in breach of its building permit, Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness sought to distance himself from the project.
In a statement on Dec. 10, the prime minister said, “I am not a director of the Company which is the subject of the report, and I am not a shareholder in the company, nor do I own the property in question. Therefore, it is a puzzle to me why I am a subject of this report.”
But in his statement, the prime minister didn’t deny being “connected” to the development, which is what the IC had stated.
Without specifically implicating him in any wrongdoing related to the permit breaches, the IC said the prime minister “is connected” to the development based on the fact that his now defunct St. Lucian offshore company, Admat Incorporated, initially owned the Weycliffe Close land being developed. It was also by virtue of the fact that the prime minister is the sole director, shareholder and beneficial owner of Imperium Investments Holdings Limited, which had shares in Estatebridge, the company doing the development, at the time that the planning and/or building permit was issued on July 12, 2021.
As a result of PM Holness’ statement, 18º North has been combing through previous investigations and publications to examine just how connected he is to the Weycliffe Close development as the IC claims.
Here are some relevant facts and also some questions:-
Related Story:
Ownership and Directorship of Estatebridge Development Clarified By Companies Office
PM Holness’ Admat Incorporated owned the land
A year after being registered in St. Lucia in 2008, Admat Incorporated acquired 2 Weycliffe Close in 2009 while Holness was Minister of Education. Admat paid $15.275 million (US$173,029) for the property, which is located in the Beverly Hills community in St. Andrew parish. Two years later, in 2011, it also acquired another nearby property on Shenstone Drive, where PM Holness lives today.
Holness had clarified from February 2016, while Opposition Leader, that Admat was set up for estate planning and was named for his then underaged sons, Adam and Matthew. He said he was the sole director of Admat, and that he and his sons were the company’s only shareholders. (He would tell the IC years later that he and his sons were Admat’s shareholders and directors.)
Building permit was issued while PM Holness’ Admat Incorporated owned the land.
From as far back as 2010, documents obtained by 18º North under the Access To Information Act show that Holness’ longtime associate, Robert Garvin, had applied as an individual to the Kingston and St. Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) to build townhouses on the land. The application made clear then that Admat owned the land.
This means that even before he became prime minister, Holness always had intention to build townhouses at Weycliffe Close.
It's not fully clear why approval took eleven years, but it appears there was some rejection and resubmission of the application. By the time the KSAMC issued the building permit on July 12, 2021, the name on the permit was Estatebridge Holdings Limited. (The company’s name was changed to Estatebridge Development Limited on Feb. 19, 2021.)
That means, when the permit was issued, PM Holness’ Admat Incorporated still owned the land. Admat transferred the land via gift to Estatebridge months later on Nov. 4, 2021, just before Admat, itself, was dissolved in St. Lucia in December 2021.
At the time of the transfer to Estatebridge in November 2021, PM Holness’ holding company, Imperium Investments - registered in Jamaica in June 2020 - had a stake in Estatebridge. Then, and even today, PM Holness is the sole director, sole shareholder and beneficial owner of Imperium, according to the IC’s report on PM Holness’ statutory declarations.
Before Admat was dissolved, PM Holness told the IC that he transferred Admat's assets to Imperium, including his Shenstone Drive property where he lives.
However, he said, it was more “economical” to transfer Admat's Weycliffe Close property directly to Estatebridge.
Estatebridge's shareholders and directors.
Estatebridge was incorporated in Jamaica in July 2020 for “the construction, repair and alteration of buildings.”
At the time of its incorporation, PM Holness’ Imperium Investments owned 5001 of Estatebridge's 9,001 issued ordinary shares, making Imperium the majority shareholder. (999 shares of the company’s 10,000 ordinary shares remained unallotted.)
The other shareholders were PM Holness’ sister, Sydjea Anderson (2,000 shares) and Norman Brown (2,000 shares). Both were also directors from inception.
At the time, Brown was already chairman of the government entity, Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ), which falls under the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation which is presided over by the prime minister. As of 2024, he’s also now chairman of the Urban Development Corporation (UDC), also under PM Holness’ jurisdiction.
On Jan. 28, 2021, Imperium gave up 1,000 shares in Estatebridge, and, on that same date, PM Holness’ son, Adam, acquired the same number of shares. PM Holness told the IC that Adam became a shareholder in Estatebridge upon obtaining the age of majority. The summer before, in June 2020, a news article listed him as being 17 years old.
On March 29, 2021, Adam became a director of Estatebridge and acquired an additional 1,000 shares as Brown forfeited 1,000 of his 2,000 shares. That means, the prime minister’s son, Adam; his sister, Sydjea Anderson; his associate, Norman Brown; and PM Holness’ own holding company, Imperium, were all shareholders in Estatebridge at the time the building permit was issued in July 2021.
However, by the following year, Imperium had surrendered all its remaining 4,001 ordinary shares “back to the Company” effective Oct. 20, 2022, according to the notice sent to the Companies Office by Estatebridge. This leaves the current shareholders as Adam (2,000 shares), Anderson (2,000 shares), and Brown (1,000 shares). All three also remain the company’s directors. It was the directors of Estatebridge that the IC had held “liable” for the permit breaches, which entailed more rooms being built than was approved by the KSAMC.
A later probe by the KSAMC couldn’t confirm the room-count breaches, but still revealed some breaches like the dining room/living room being extended, and the powder room being converted to a storage area.
Since the IC’s report was released on Dec. 10, 2024, Estatebridge that same day filed with the KSAMC an "as-built" application, as it was told it could do, to regularize changes to the approved plans. On Friday, Jan. 10, 2025, the KSAMC said that that application had been approved after “an extensive technical review of the updated documents,” and the development is now deemed to be “compliant.”
PM Holness appears to live closest to the property
Though Adam was listed with a Shenstone Drive address on company documents when appointed as a director in 2021, and though his name surfaces on building documents filed with the KSAMC that 18º North has seen, he doesn’t appear now to live in Jamaica.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Adam has been studying for a bachelor’s degree in artificial intelligence at Oxford Brooks University in England since August 2022 and has been working “Full-time” and “On-site” in data communications at Cummins Inc. in England since June 2024.
Director Sydjea Anderson also doesn’t appear to be local.
Though she was listed with an Ensom City, St. Catherine address on company documents, her LinkedIn profile lists her as a “Human Resources Manager” in the New York City Metropolitan area. The IC had also confirmed in its investigation report into PM Holness’ statutory declarations that she “resides overseas.”
Anderson told investigators that a building contractor manages the day-to-day operations of the real estate development/construction while director Norman Brown manages the “few” day-to-day operations of the business.
Brown owns St. James-based Pembrooke Trucking, reportedly involved in transport, real estate development and cement distribution.
On Estatebridge’s company documents, he is personally listed as having an Ironshore, St. James address, almost three hours away from Weycliffe Close, though he reportedly comes into Kingston at least monthly for UDC and HAJ board meetings.
PM Holness lives a two-minute drive away from the development in the same Beverly Hills community at Shenstone Drive.
This raises a question as to whether PM Holness, at any point, had supervised or checked in on the project? Would he have been aware of any building violations?
Were PM Holness’ entities involved when any breaches occurred?
Those questions are important because though the breaches identified by the IC - and, later, by the KSAMC - were observed in 2024, almost two years after Imperium relinquished its shares in Estatebridge, an excerpt of an interview that the IC did with Norman Brown in December 2023 raises a question about whether breaches had occurred before 2024, while PM Holness’ entities were directly invested or involved.
In that interview with the IC, which was then related to its initial probe of PM Holness’ statutory declarations, Brown stated about the project’s commencement date, “I am unsure of the exact date it started, it may have been sometime in 2020...” He also stated that the “project is managed by Mr. Kennedo Nesbeth of KNN Design and Construction Limited,” who, in addition to Estatebridge’s directors, was also deemed liable by the IC for the permit breaches.
2020 would have been before the KSAMC’s permit was issued in July 2021. Therefore, if construction was going on then, the project would have been in breach at a time when PM Holness’ Admat Incorporated owned the land. Additionally, if construction was occurring after July 2020, it would also have been when his Imperium Investments would have been the majority shareholder in Estatebridge, the developer of the land.
PM Holness Signed as CEO/Managing Director/Executive Director of Estatebridge in 2021
While Imperium was a shareholder, PM Holness and directors Brown and Anderson were the signatories on Estatebridge’s NCB current and savings accounts at the time that they were opened on Nov. 9, 2020, according to the IC. However, the company’s account-opening forms dated Jan. 11, 2021 at investment house, NCB Capital Markets, indicate that PM Holness “was the sole individual authorized to act on behalf of the Company and signed the document as CEO/Managing Director/Executive Director.”
PM Holness was removed as a signatory on Nov. 15, 2022 on the basis “that Imperium was no longer a majority shareholder.” The IC stated that directors Brown and Anderson are the signatories on all accounts held by Estatebridge.
Intercompany bank transfers between PM Holness, Estatebridge, Imperium and Positive Media Solutions continued up until June 2023.
According to the IC’s report on PM Holness’ statutory declarations, a forensic examination of bank accounts attributable to PM Holness and the companies, Imperium, Estatebridge and another one named Positive Media Solutions Limited was carried out for transactions between Jan. 1, 2020 and June 13, 2023. It revealed cumulative intercompany deposits and withdrawals of around $473 million (US$3.27 million) and $427 million (US$2.95 million), respectively.
Estatebridge's accounts saw deposits totaling just over $170 million (US$1.18 million) coming from PM Holness, Estatebridge (intra account transfers), and Imperium. They also saw withdrawals in the sum of $129 million (US$894,460) by Estatebridge (intra account transfers) and Imperium.
However, specific transaction dates between these accounts aren't detailed in the report. So, it’s not clear if the interactions between the accounts of just Estatebridge and PM Holness and/or Imperium continued after Imperium surrendered its shares in Estatebridge by Oct. 20, 2022. The inclusion by the IC of Positive Media complicates the analysis, and neither the IC nor PM Holness responded to inquiries from 18º North seeking clarity on this matter.
Is the forfeiture of Imperium's shares in Estatebridge reflected in PM Holness’ asset declarations?
Within the IC’s report that examined PM Holness’ statutory declarations between 2018 and 2022, it’s explicitly laid out that the prime minister disclosed the Weycliffe Close property as part of his assets up to 2020 while it was owned by Admat.
Then, the value of the land was displayed at the purchase price of $15.275 million (US$105,585).

Not as clear is whether PM Holness continued to declare this asset after it was transferred in November 2021 from Admat to Estatebridge, which was then partly owned by PM Holness’ Imperium Investments.
The report did, however, include information from the 2021 and 2022 financials of Imperium, showing the value of its investments in Estatebridge, including the $15.275 million purchase price for Weycliffe Close and an additional $23.283 million (US$160,941) for “Contribution to real estate development.”

When asked about the source of funds for this $23.283 million contribution to Estatebridge from Imperium, PM Holness told the IC it comprised of “transfer of JMD10,636,236.60 in stocks to Estatebridge and net consolidated balance on related company account of JMD12,647,144.90.”
An accountant told 18º North that net consolidated balance usually means the net assets of a company. It appears the “related company” is Imperium, based on the matching dollar amount presented in a pie chart included in the IC’s report.
The $23.283 million plus the $15.275 million equates to $38.558 million (US$266,526). The IC commented that as of Oct. 20, 2022, when Imperium ceased to be a shareholder in Estatebridge, it “forfeited its remaining 4,001 shares, and in doing so, seemingly, its $38,558,382 contribution up to that point.” That could be because when Estatebridge notified the Companies Office of the shareholder change, it explained that Imperium had surrendered all its 4,001 ordinary shares back to the company “as a gift.”
If Imperium’s $38.558-million investment in Estatebridge was forfeited “as a gift” for no consideration, the question then arises, did PM Holness’ statutory declarations reflect this drop in his assets in 2022?
The figures presented for his 2022 statutory declaration in the IC’s investigation don’t obviously reflect that. In fact, compared to 2021, the value of his investments in Imperium went up in 2022, even though the disposition of the asset would have been required to have been declared on his statutory declaration form as at Dec. 31, 2022.

There is the possibility, however, that Imperium’s other assets increased in value to more than offset the $38.558-million relinquishment of its investments in Estatebridge.
Overall, compared to 2020, there was an increase in the combined net worth of PM Holness and Imperium for 2021 and 2022.

Similar entries for 2023 weren’t presented in the report, so it’s not known if Imperium’s full relinquishment of its shares in Estatebridge would have been more obviously reflected then.
The IC does have PM Holness’ 2023 statutory declaration, however, according to information in a recent court ruling related to the prime minister’s attempt to contest some of the IC's findings about him regarding his statutory declarations.
The IC didn’t answer a question from 18º North about whether PM Holness’ 2022 and 2023 statutory declarations reflected the relinquishment of Imperium's investments in the property at Weycliffe Close and Estatebridge.
PM Holness didn’t answer either.
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Editor’s Notes:
Except for the first reference to the $15.275 million purchase price of the Weycliffe Close land in 2009 when the average exchange sell rate was J$88.28:US$1, the exchange rate used throughout this article is J$144.67:US$1, which is the average of the sum of the average sell rates for each of the years between 2018 and 2023 found on the Bank of Jamaica’s website. The initial US dollar equivalent of the $15.275 million at US$173,029 varies significantly from the later conversion of the same amount at US$105,585 because of depreciation of the Jamaican dollar from 2009.
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Ownership and Directorship of Estatebridge Development Clarified By Companies Office