Aster Caribbean Holdings has received full written approval from the Central Planning Authority (CPA) for both its Planned Area Development in West Bay and its application to commence clearing and filling the site, ready for construction to commence on its 160-bed hospital tertiary and quaternary hospital.

Aster submitted an application to the Planning Department for a Planned Area Development for its Aster Cayman Medcity 40-acre site in West Bay, along with its clear and fill application, both of which were heard at the meeting of the CPA on 12^th May 2021. The project was comprehensively presented by the Aster Cayman Medcity Project Director, Gene Thompson, including details of how the site, a previously cleared set of parcels just north of Jackson’s Pond, would be developed.

Gene Thompson, Local Project Director for Aster Cayman Medcity, commented on the CPA confirmation, â€œI am very pleased that our application has now been approved and would like to thank the Department of Planning and CPA for allowing us to present the project, which allowed everybody to see the extent of our commitment to creating a development that truly serves the Cayman Islands from an economic, healthcare, assisted living, education and employment perspective, while adopting design process that is genuinely conservation-led.  

Our aim is to create a development that not only serves all of its users well but is something that the Cayman Islands and all who live here can be truly proud of. It makes business sense to be low carbon and low consumption, but we are going much further by preserving water features, focusing on local flora and devoting much more of our development to open space than we needed to.”

The Aster Cayman Medcity site will be developed in phases, providing construction employment for more than a decade and hundreds of construction jobs in the first phase of the hospital alone. During the presentation, Mr Thompson reaffirmed his commitment to generating both Caymanian employment and new career opportunities for young Caymanians. That commitment extends to Caymanians who have been displaced by the pandemic.

Following confirmation, Ms. Alisha Moopen, Deputy Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare, said; â€œI am delighted at reaching this next milestone in our important journey of extending high quality, latest generation, but affordable healthcare to populations around the World. Part of that commitment is also to developing future healthcare talent, and I am excited that the establishment of a tertiary and quaternary hospital as the first phase of our development in the Cayman Islands will allow us to then establish a leading healthcare university, and I look forward to welcoming the first Caymanian medical and nursing students to our campus. Importantly, they will be able to gain both their academic qualifications and their multidisciplinary clinical training without leaving.  

I fell in love with the beauty of the Cayman Islands and the kindness of its people and so our clinical excellence hub, and home, in the West, will be both a state-of-the-art facility and in harmony with its surroundings. Part of Aster’s ethos is creating an environment that is healing around the buildings, not just within, and so we’re designing parks, planting, walking paths and golf cart lanes throughout to encourage exercise and reduce vehicle movement.”

Approval of the PAD and clear and fill applications allows site development to commence, ready for hospital construction, subject to obtaining the necessary individual planning approvals. Speaking at the CPA Meeting about this, Mr Thompson confirmed that all local regulations and codes would be adhered to, as well as the latest International standards where applicable, for waste management, storm water management and hurricane or seismic security; “this will be a JCI-accredited facility which means that we will be adopting the highest possible standards in order to achieve that”