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By Maduka Nweke, [email protected]
M.I Okoro & Associates, a real estate firm has entered into partnership with Polaris Bank Limited to facilitate the location of over 2,000 members of the Electric Materials Dealers Association presently in Okija, in Port Harcourt to their permanent site at Iriebe, Rivers State.
The partnership billed to cost N5 billion is being developed by REVELATION AINTS LIMITED.
According to Dr. Meckson Innocent Okoro, Principal Partner at M. I. Okoro & Associates, 600 lock-up shops are already developed out of the total 1,720 shops earmarked for the complex while business activities would commence on the completed shops as the developer continues to develop more shops in phases to enable market dealers to settle down fully for business in the new site tagged “Promised Land”. He noted that at the long run, the market will increase the income generation for Rivers State.
In a Press Conference with Property & Environment Writers Association of Nigeria ( PEWAN), the Principal Partner of M.I Okoro & Associates, M.I Okoro said, “Members of the public are being encouraged to invest in this shopping complex now because once the businessmen from Okija move to the new location, competition for space will be tougher. By then, lock-up shops will become very limited in supply as there will be constantly rising demand for them even at higher prices. Whoever that invests in it now will know that he or she is investing in a viable real estate investment”.
Okoro said that aside the 1720 lock-up shops, traders will have massive warehouses for storing goods to facilitate distribution to various customers. He said there will also be restaurants at various points for traders and customers to eat and save time. “Furthermore, provisions are made in the ‘Promise Land’ for banking halls and other offices to support business operations which were not in the temporal site. The size of each lock- up shops is 14.3sqm and is developed on ground and first floors only. Each shop on the ground floor costs N4.5 million on the average while the first floor shops cost N4 million. Although these prices are promotional that could only last till April 2023. After the April promotional grace, the prices would be reviewed upwards,”he said.
While fielding questions on Mortgage Facilities, M.I Okoro said that any customer who pays 20 percent of the shop cost will have the rest covered by the bank facility and spread conveniently to enable the customer pay without stress. He said that there will be a Christian crusade onMarch 30, by 11:00 am to usher the traders into the new and permanent site. The whole exercise, he said will culminate with a Golf Tournament billed to take place on the first day of April by 8:00am.
Earlier, during her opening remarks, the Chairman of PEWAN, Mrs. Okwy Chikezie Iroegbu, appreciated Dr. M.I Okoro who has been a Patron of the Association and reliable ally for maintaining the relationship he cultivated long time ago. She said, before now, M.I Okoro chose a segment of the real estate market where he played the role almost unchallenged with very few operators daring to challenge him. “Today we celebrate another milestone with in in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital where a specialised Electrical and Building Materials market has just debuted with his firm as the marketer,” he said.
