Hews to redevelop Dorcy Drive site with FedEx
(CNS): After almost ten years a locally owned family business has finalized its plans to help improve the look of one corner of George Town’s dusty industrial park area. Close to a decade after developing a plan for the land at the corner of Dorcy Drive and Portland Road, the Hew family will be using the site to provide a new home for FedEx as well as their own offices. The first plan was derailed by the evens of 9-11 in the US, then again by the impact of Ivan in 2004 but now they have found a solid partner with the international courier service and hope to have the project complete before early next year.
“We had a plan in place back in 2001 with another courier service, a much smaller project, that was derailed by 9-11 and so we just had to bide our time,” said Joey Hew, the family’s lead on the project. Hurricane Ivan dealt the family a second setback as they were about to launch a second development plan. “It seemed to us at that time that perhaps fate had something else planned for us for that site” he added. “When the Phoenix Group inquired on behalf of FedEx in 2008 I knew then what we had been waiting for all along”
Neil Rooney of Exeter Development, the Phoenix Group’s development arm said the firm had been in discussions with FedEx since 2004 about managing a design/build/lease solution for them.
“Over the years, while we waited for FedEx Head Office to prioritize the project, we examined multiple sites for traffic flow, travel time, access, visibility and, critically, the right corporate partner for FedEx. The site, as it turns out, was right in almost every way and the Hew family was exactly the sort of landlord in which FedEx could see a long-term future,” Rooney said. “It was our job to make sure that the every aspect of the projectwas consistent with the long-term goals of the all parties involved.”
The new project, along with the new Thompson Building going up alongside it represent the next steps in an area that is gradually changing to a more up-market profile than the dusty face of the Industrial Park that it used to be, the parties involved said.
“We always felt that the area would evolve” Hew said of Grand Cayman’s industrial area. “We are seeing more quality retail in the area with the classy refurbishment of Car City, thereno of Cayman Air Conditioning and the additional retail space that will be available in the new FedEx building, which will be called Hewden Place – in fact, we also have some additional office space for lease in the new building” he added.
The project, which has been financed by HSBC will open in early 2011.
Category: Business
