Published Thursday 30th August, 2007

New office buildings

This week we go light on the analysis, in favour of setting out the facts.

Greater Port-of-Spain contains about 6.5 million sq ft of office space, according to the latest estimates. That area extends from the Gulf of Paria to the south, Cocorite to the west, the Lady Young Road to the east and the northern edge of the Queen’s Park Savannah to the north.

We have all seen the many office construction projects taking place around the capital, perhaps it is a good time to pause to consider the scale and implications of those projects.

The tables set out the public and private projects with details of their developer/intended occupants, location, size and anticipated completion dates. The information in those tables was obtained from UdeCott, the private developers and press reports.

Readers should note that these proposals were excluded:

1. SWWTU site at Wrightson Road: the SWWTU recently issued a request for proposals to develop 250,000 sq ft of offices on its site, opposite T&TEC.

2. Ministry of Health HQ: the site at the corner of Queen’s Park East and Jerningham Avenue has been earmarked for this project, comprising approximately 85,000 sq ft.

3. NIB site at Queen’s Park East: the National Insurance Board has assembled a major site along Queen’s Park East between Cadiz Road and Belmont Circular Road. This site could include a significant office element.

4. The recently completed Licencing Department HQ on Wrightson Road.

5. Eastbridge’s office content: that being the name of the State proposal to redevelop East PoS. The draft proposals published by the Ministry of Housing in March 2006 include 300,000 sq ft of commercial space: the proportion of offices in that overall figure is unknown.

6. UdeCott proposals: from their Web site “Project List - North” at http://www.udecott.com/index.php/cc/cc_project_list/C42, as follows:

·         Invader’s Bay reclamation.

Significant lands have been reclaimed behind the Movietowne/Marriott Hotel/BHP-Billiton complex along the Audrey Jeffers Highway (Foreshore). These lands could be developed for offices.

·         Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources HQ.

Described as “an office building…which is currently in the conceptual stage. …”

·         Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries HQ

Described as “An office building in its conceptual stage, this will include a main building, auditorium, cafeteria and raised car park.”

·         Ministry of Local Government HQ

Described as “An administrative headquarters for the Ministry. This office building is in the conceptual stage.”

·         PoS Legislative Complex

This proposal, which must surely contain significant offices, is listed on the Web site as being at the conceptual stage.

Also, please note that the Ministry of Public Administration & Information is the main ministry managing the State’s office properties. The building at St Clair avenue which was to have been their HQ is now to become the Office of the Prime Minister. Where will their HQ building now be erected?

Next week, we continue this analysis by examining how we got here and the implications of these projects on our capital.

Afra Raymond is a director of Raymond & Pierre Limited. Feedback can be sent to afra@raymondandpierre.com.