Business View Caribbean | Volume 8, Issue 10

27 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 8, ISSUE 10 to contractors engaged in structural works, mechanical installations, high-end fit-out, and design-build projects. Cudjoe-Jacob describes ALTURA’s first significant project in 2011, explaining, “Our seat of government – our parliament – meets in a historical building called The Red House. It’s very old and it was falling apart on our parliamentarians’ heads, so they wanted to relocate the parliament in a very short, tight timeframe to a set of offices at the International Waterfront Centre. That was our first design- build project.” Prior to that time, the government initiated many design-bid-build construction projects. A team of architects and engineers, etc. would be hired to do the scheduling and preparation of drawings. Subsequently, tenders would be sent out. Contractors would submit a bid stating the price they would charge for building. The project would go forward once a bid was accepted. Around the time of the parliament building relocation, the government adopted a new design-build procurement process – where the contractor does the design and the construction. Cudjoe-Jacob notes, “Two contractors were chosen to outfit nine storeys of the International Waterfront Centre Tower D and we worked with both of them, providing planning services and project management. That build was successfully completed and gave us our first big start. Recently, there has been an upsurge in the design-bid-build format in Trinidad, so that has affected how we roll out our business now.” The ALTURA head office is located in Cascade, Port of Spain, but most work is done on location with staff distributed among the project sites. Along with many projects in Trinidad, the firm has also delivered projects and services in Barbados and Guyana. According to Cudjoe- Jacob, “We do a lot of government work in Trinidad. There are some private developers here, but being a small country, the majority of ALTURA CAR I BBEAN L IMI TED construction projects are government-funded or are being developed by a state enterprise. For instance, we are now working on a youth hostel for women that’s run by a non-governmental organization but the construction is still being run under the aegis of a state agency.” ALTURA Caribbean employs a staff of 12 – a lean, productive team – although the company may take on more people if there is a lot of work