Building history today

Mark Vandevelde, Chief Operating Officer of Dart
Realty (Cayman) Ltd

Senior Management staff: (l-r) Cameron Graham,
Senior VP of Construction, Mark Vandevelde, COO,
Dale Dennis, Information Systems Director, Jackie
Doak, VP of Property Management, Sandy Urquhart,
Senior VP of Design and George Hanson, Chief
Financial Officer

Some of the staff working on Camana Bay: Justin
Howe, Project Manager, Renaldo Powery, Document
Control, Cameron Graham, Senior VP of Construction,
Jennie Pacheco, Assistant Project Manager, Sean Bent,
Document Control, Lori Chartier, Controller, Chris
Faram, Engineering Manager, Chris Pope, Purchasing
Manager and Randy Ebanks, Surveyor

Working on the multi-level parking garage at Camana
Bay

Camana Bay in progress from the air

The property management team (l-r): Christopher
Huntley, Senior Manager, Jackie Doak, VP, Richard
O’Donnel, Building Services Supervisor, Jeff
Lombardo, Sales & Leasing Manager, Ivan Webb,
Building Services Assistant, Marion Wilson,
Administrative Assistant and Daniel Cummings,
Creative Service Manager

Construction work on the Cayman International School

Monday,  February 20, 2006

With 330 acres and an estimated $1 billion to be spent over 30 years, Camana Bay is without a doubt the biggest real estate development in the history of the country. 

Within the next year, Camana Bay will significantly increase the availability of office and retail space here.

And even though most residents are just seeing the commercial buildings coming out of the ground, residential phases will soon be introduced, which will eventually have a dramatic impact on the shortage of housing.

The total impact on the economy will be staggering. Even the developer cannot quantify what the multiplier effect on the economy will be, but it is likely that economic impact of this project will be felt for generations.

In the short term, the $300 million to be spent over three years on the first phase of Camana Bay is already fuelling the construction industry. 

It may surprise some people, with that kind of capital injection into the economy, the developers are aware that a return on its investment may not be made for several years.

The primary motivation behind Camana Bay is not profit, according to Chief Operating Officer of Dart Realty (Cayman) Ltd, Mark VanDevelde. 
“This is not strictly an economic exercise,” said Mr VanDevelde. “We are investing a lot of time and capital to create a special place with public spaces that do not directly generate income so it is not going to be economically viable in the short-term. But we want to create something in the world that is a special place in the Caribbean that will stand the test of time.” 

Mr VanDevelde explained that there is a lower profit on building when the focus is on quality as opposed to quantity.

“But we are here for the long term. The motivation is instead to reinvigorate that special part of Caymanian culture that had neighbours talking outside with each other and kids bicycling down to the local park,” he said.

Even in the smaller details the Dart family started working on this project several years ago when it started a dedicated propagation nursery built to supply the quality and diversity of plant material needed in the large quantities necessary for Dart Realty’s projects. 

The nursery places specific emphasis on the production of native and endemic plant material to the region. With over 26 acres of plant material, the nursery is one of the largest of its kind in the world with hundreds of species of tropical plants, palms, trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants. 

So when the development is landscaped, Dart has a large inventory of mature plants; yet another example of their long-term approach the development.

Mr VanDevelde said the idea of a mixed-use community is not a new idea. There have been several master planned configurations in the US that may have been profitable but they did not quite create the sense of community that was aimed for.

The concept for Camana Bay is to have a pedestrian friendly town where you can walk down to the corner store or to work. Where open air, greenery and water effects will be prominent throughout the town centre as well as the residential areas.

Cars will still be a reality but in town there will be consolidated parking so people can get out of their cars and experience a pedestrian lifestyle. In the residential areas, they will be back areas for parking so there will be fewer cars on the street. 

Add to the fact that people will be able to spend less time in their cars and more time working and playing together, helping to create that sense of community that individuals seek. 

It is sometimes difficult for some people to visualise Camana Bay because nothing is completed yet. But there are other people who have seen the drawings and have got the idea.

Mr VanDevelde said there are limitations in George Town. There is a lot of traffic and a lack of parking, numerous older buildings that need redevelopment and a lot of cruise ships. And at night everything closes down at 6:00 pm; so does the town.

A master planned community such as Camana Bay creates spaces so that different people do not overlap, so professionals are not competing with cruise ship passengers.

“When you go to a restaurant you have to get into your car and then afterwards figure out where you going to go,” said Mr VanDevelde.

“If you want to do some shopping, you then get into your car and drive to the next destination. There is no central place that makes it a destination in and of itself.

“This concept will form part of the Camana Bay town centre, which is happening during Phase one. 

“There will also be an interactive water fountain with jets of water coming out in various spots. Children will be able to play in the fountain,” he said. 
One important feature of the town centre is an open-air boulevard designed for pedestrians, which will be lined with shops on either side. It is designed for a pleasant shopping experience with trees and other greenery and the benefits of a breeze from the sea. This area has been designed to accommodate art and craft shows and farmers market on the weekend. 

Mr VanDevelde said the long term build out over a 30-year period creates its own challenges with the all important question: How do you know what people want 20 or more years from now?

“Because the Dart family are engineers by trade there is a degree of a puzzle to it. There are new twists and turns in trying to predict what people will want. There is no certainty that it will have economic or social acceptance by people so it is a challenge to create a place where people want to go,” he said. 

The primary source of funds for this project goes back to Dart Realty’s parent company. Dart Container Corporation’s core business is the production of beads that form Styrofoam cups and plastic containers that we are familiar with in fast food take out. 

Dart Container Corporation began as a small machine shop in Mason, Michigan, in the late 1950s. It was the era where fast food was gaining prominence, which created enormous demand for cups and other packaging that allowed the customer to take food outside of restaurants. 
Over the next few decades, the fast food and disposable food packaging has only grown from strength to strength. 

The Dart family didn’t invent these products, but they did engineer machines that produced better quality containers and enabled them to be successful. With a large base of institutional clients such as schools and hospitals along with a large market share of the fast food industry, Dart Container Corporation has become the largest manufacturer of disposable food containers in the world. 

The historical success of the firm generated the necessary financial resources to invest in a project such as Camana Bay.

Mr VanDevelde explained the original focal point in Cayman was portfolio investment and there were tax benefits for moving financial management company offshore. But brothers Ken and Bob Dart had been coming to the Cayman Islands for years and had made it their second home. So when the opportunity to purchase the land, which would eventually become Camana Bay came up, the concept of creating a special community in Cayman was formed.

Dart in the Cayman Islands employs 130 people with115 of them working for Dart Realty. The remaining staff work in the investment portfolio and the managing of a manufacturing plant located in the Bahamas. 

With Ernst & Young and Cayman National Bank both committing to the town centre, Camana Bay already has two high profile tenants. But Mr VanDevelde emphasised that from the corporate office space to the retail space and the residential areas, it will not be exclusively for the deep pocket companies or millionaire residents. 

“This will not be an enclave for the rich,” he said. “We do not want to replicate Palm Beach. We want to create an experience such as when you are sitting in a café and looking over the bay. 

“We want tourists to have a sense of Cayman when they visit in both its architecture and its shops. We want visitors to experience Cayman - not a US mall that was dropped into this country.” 

This means that Camana Bay will not be renting out all its prime retail and office space to high margin clients. It will have to make special deals for specialty and mom and pop shops that make the culture unique. In the next year they will be mapping out the retail space. 

“We have a long term perspective and we have to have flexible terms for a variety of tenants,” Mr VanDevelde added.

“We want to create partnerships to make it an interesting place. So there is room for the retailer who may not be able to afford higher rents. But also keep in mind that with Camana Bay, their economic reality may very well change,” he said.

shurna@caymannetnews.com

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