Johnston built the Marine Parade Boulevard in Belize City, the Orange Walk Bypass, The Los Lagos Community, the San Pedro Pier, The Radisson Fort George, Banyan Bay Resort on San Pedro, the ITVET buildings in Stann Creek and Cayo, and the Belize Bank headquarters, to name but a few.

Johnston International rose to prominence in Belize as a Michael Ashcroft company. According to its website, Johnston was sold in a management led buyout in 1999. The buyout was led by Allen Forrest, the Former Chairman of what was then the Ashcroft corporate mothership, Belize Holdings.

The company touts itself as the largest construction company throughout the Caribbean region with its head office in Turks and Caicos and branches scattered across the Caribbean including Belize which governs a local subsidiary Belize Aggregates. It's a massive enterprise but it's apparently in trouble. A news report out of Turks and Caicos states that:

"Employees of Johnston International arriving to work...June 26th, in the Turks and Caicos and other jurisdictions were met with the doors locked and rumours about the company's solvency."

But that didn't happen in Belize. When we spoke with local manager John Doré today he told us "their doors are open" and "they are carrying on as normal at the present time."

Doré however did confirm that doors were closed at the Turks and Caicos office and that the company is restructuring. He said he could not discuss the future for the company in Belize or elsewhere and said that would only be known after the restructuring exercise.

During the growth economics boom, or bubble - as it turned out to be - of the early "oughts", the well connected Johnston was a much called upon contractor for major public funded projects. A look at their portfolio reveals this: there's the Marine Parade for 10 million US dollars, the Orange Walk bypass for 21 million US dollars and the Los Lagos community for 9.5 million US dollars.