Business View Caribbean | April 2021

74 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN APRIL 2021 we’ve got large suppliers that are generally well stocked. So it’s not as challenging for us as some of the other islands, in that respect.” Being general contractors, the Phoenix teams do various aspects of work. Depending on what that is, the company offers some onsite training, some office training, tutorial work, and making sure everyone has their safety certifications is of the utmost importance. Every three to six months, different groups of staff are given CPR training to keep everybody up to speed. In addition, leadership courses and other courses more specialized to certain areas of the business are ongoing. For the two years leading up to COVID, the company’s project ratio was about 50/50 commercial to residential. Now, it’s weighted on the commercial/industrial side – with growth in the healthcare sector, infrastructure, and general commercial (office improvements, tenant improvement fit-outs), and about 25 percent is high-end residential. But Howe believes that will pick up, noting, “We do a lot of renovation work to existing properties – on both the commercial and residential level. We have a three-person interior design department that focuses primarily on residential renovation work.” In the renewables sector, Phoenix Construction is taking on solar projects on a regular basis. Currently, the team is learning more about the battery technology side for being off the grid and looking at developing a vertical farm project – going solar with battery support for that project. Howe shares, “We’re always looking for ways to be sustainable in our practices and promoting that within our projects that we’re involved in.” He adds, “I’d be remiss if I didn’t recognize our own staff. It’s our people who make Phoenix who we are and we have a great team of 50 to 60 individuals. Most of them are long-term. That’s just our core staff. We also subcontract out a Managing Director, Brent McComb