Walkers broke ground for its new building on 6 February. With 100,000 square feet for the first phase alone, it will be the largest office building in Cayman to date.
The driving factor behind the establishment of the new building is the fact that Walkers is growing much faster then it expected to. Even with the two office buildings in George Town, it is still pressed for more office space, as many employees double up in offices. The Managing Partner of Walkers, Grant Stein, said five years ago Walkers had 160 staff members. Today, that number has now reached almost 450 employees around the world. "The biggest growth we have experienced is here in our head office in Cayman," said Mr Stein. "The significant growth in global hedge funds industry as well as reasonable growth in structured finance and private equity is driving our need for more office space to accommodate the increased numbers of staff to service this business."According to the Deputy Managing Partner, Wayne Panton, the firm hopes the phase one and phase two of the new building will accommodate Walkers growth in Cayman for the next five years. "This building represents a massive commitment to the Cayman Islands and confirms our long-term loyalty to the firm's home jurisdiction and worldwide headquarters," said Mr Panton.The site is located on Elgin Avenue, next to Cayman National Group. The building is designed to withstand a category five hurricane with seven stories and includes redundant power, water and telecommunication systems in case of a natural disaster. It also incorporates environmental friendly equipment designed to conserve energy and provides long-term energy savings. This includes motion activated lighting, solar water heating and solar blinds to track and shield the suns passage overhead. The building is Category Five Hurricane resistant with angled corners and sloping parapets to distribute wind load. There is also parking on the ground floor with offices above and office floor elevations start at over 18-feet to prevent office flooding.The block design of the building wraps around a full-height central atrium, providing natural light to all office. Additionally, each floor shares this open internal volume and, once inside, visitors witness Walkers Headquarters as an integrated working unit.The first phase of 100,000 square feet is scheduled to be ready in January 2009 with the second phase of 50,000 square feet planned after the first phase is completed. Mr Stein said innovation continues to be a defining characteristic of Walkers and that concept was incorporated in the design of the building. "We wanted a building that reflected our core values and worked well with the unique environment of the Cayman Islands."
"We also wanted to create a working atmosphere that our employees could be proud of and that would make them comfortable. There was no building in Cayman that met our criteria, so we decided to have our own built."