The University Centre in Montserrat has teamed up with Mr. Colin Riley to address two initiatives this month, a workshop on grant writing and a public lecture on real estate business that revealed the perception that small investors can find investment opportunity in Montserrat.
On June 4th, Mr. Riley conducted a public lecture entitled, ‘Montserrat, the Real Estate Island of the Eastern Caribbean: Preparing to Build on Accomplishments in a Robust Economic Sector’. On June 5th, Colin Riley also conducted a grant writing workshop.
The purpose of this public lecture was to assess the real estate development potential for Montserrat in a post-disaster context.
The public lecture began with an overview of the accomplishments of Montserrat’s real estate sector. Colin Riley then addressed the issue of ‘Big Plans’ using assessment tools from the town planning and real estate development traditions. He also discussed various approaches for real estate development in the future, from the perspective of creating products that are investment assets. Colin Riley summarizes that there’s a place in the real estate industry for the small investor with as little as $1,000EC.
Mr. Riley is a former geography teacher at the Montserrat Secondary School, former President of the Montserrat Union of Teachers, and former manager of the Montserrat Cricket Team. Colin Riley also graduated from the MIT city planning and real estate development masters programs in 2000, in addition to holding previous appointments in town center planning, transit oriented development planning, and affordable housing developments.
Colin Riley reports that significant gains in economic growth and productivity have been experienced in Montserrat after 1960. Most of this growth and productivity can be traced to a major real estate project along the western coastline of the country.
Although the project brought a level of planned investment in land and buildings, Mr. Riley admits it was quite different from the way real estate was valued and developed on the island, along with other island of the Eastern Caribbean.
This economic justification was based on the premise that tourism, organized on the basis of second homes owned by wealthy families from North America and to a lesser extent Europe, could sustain economic growth and real wage increases for the country’s 12,000 residents.
The public lecture revealed between 1960 to 1995, that over 1,500 house lots were made available and about 450 dwellings were built.
However, the onset of Montserrat’s volcanic eruption caused new investment to dry up. In essence, the real estate and service industries that grew out of this major project are extending to a third generation of Montserratians.
According to Mr. Riley, many Montserratians seem to have lost the historical perspective and the economic significance of what this planned real estate project meant to Montserrat’s economy.
Mr. Colin Riley is currently employed in the public sector finance in the Boston Area of the United States and attracts grants for projects. He shared these skills and experience with residents of Montserrat in a grant writing workshop conducted on June 5, 2008.
Workshop participants learned about career options in grant writing and fund raising. He discussed the necessary steps to take for project planning, budgeting, implementation, and evaluation as it relates to the development of a grant proposal.
Mr. Riley also revealed his insight of foundations that offer support to organizations around the world and how to go about identifying the foundation that would have interest in projects needing funding. Additionally, the workshop included a practical component that encouraged participants to bring their ideas for grant proposals.
By: Karen ‘Lioness’ Allen
Freelance Journalist
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