By Peter Buxbaum From Global Trade

Special Economic Zone Will Showcase Green Building and Sustainability

Cayman Enterprise City is seeking to attract maritime services companies that handle shipments of export cargo and import cargo in international trade.
Cayman Enterprise City is a special economic zone focused on knowledge-based, technology, and services companies.
Cayman’s benefits include exemptions from corporate tax, income tax and capital gains tax.
Concessions are designed to attract internet, media, biotech, commodities, and maritime companies to Cayman.

With zoning approval from the Central Planning Authority on its land use, Cayman Enterprise City is moving ahead with plans to begin construction of its permanent campus in Greater George Town area. The campus will be built on a 70-acre site that the development group acquired after an exhaustive search.

The Cayman Enterprise City Master Plan encompasses individual Class A beautifully designed commercial buildings that will house companies from various sectors, a main boulevard and boardwalk, set around a 10-acre lake and a flowing waterway to circulate lake water.

“This property is ideal and the best suited site for our campus,” said chief development officer and architect Cindy O’Hara. “It provides for a larger pallet of experience, a city center, lakeside water frontage, and mixing high tech office space with wellness in an eco-friendly environment.”

Cayman Enterprise City is a special economic zone in the Cayman Islands focused on knowledge-based industries, technology companies and specialized services businesses. With a dedicated government authority and guaranteed fast-track processes, international companies can quickly and efficiently establish a genuine physical presence in Cayman. This enables businesses take advantage of Cayman’s benefits, which include exemptions from corporate tax, income tax and capital gains tax, along with a series of special zone concessions and incentives. These concessions were designed to attract international companies from five specific high-tech sectors: internet and technology, media and new-media ventures, biotechnology and life sciences, commodities and derivatives, and maritime services.

O’Hara, who co-developed the plan, added that every aspect of the environment has been carefully considered, and that the development team reached out to the Department of the Environment to involve them early in the process.

“We’ve embraced the new National Conservation Law approved by the government, and we are very excited about working with the Department of Environment to create an eco-community focused on business that includes a Caymanian habitat and harmonious environment that promotes well-being,” she said.

O’Hara conducted several intensive years of research to create the perfect workplace environment for CEC’s zone companies, studying zones and tech hubs around the world including the new Google and Apple campuses, to get inspiration. The mix-use commercial center will be focused on high-tech co-working business communities, serviced offices, and brand cultures. The Innovation Centre/City Hub will house the CEC headquarters and business center.

With construction of the new 850,000 square foot mixed use campus, Cayman Enterprise City expects to add greatly to Cayman’s economy over the coming years. CEC is in the process of preparing planning applications for the two Gateway office buildings in phase one, and a ground breaking will be scheduled as soon as the applications are approved. O’Hara said construction of the project will be done in phases, in tandem with the growth of Cayman Enterprise City’s growing sales pipeline.

The development team plans for phase one to be completed by fall 2018, subject to the government completing the access road on schedule and phase two completed in stages over the next ten to twelve years. The existing 180 zone companies which are currently housed in interim zone buildings in central George Town will move into the first and second buildings of phase one.

For more on this story go to: http://www.globaltrademag.com/global-trade-daily/news/cayman-enterprise-city-gets-planned-area-development-approved-for-new-george-town-campus