Integra Realty Resources Inc. has opened an office in Grand Cayman on Godfrey Nixon Way in George Town. It is the second international office for IRR, which bills itself as North America’s largest independent commercial real estate valuation and consulting firm.
The office will be headed by Managing Director James V. Andrews, who has lived in the Cayman Islands since 1997 and began valuing property here full time in 1999. Mr. Andrews has been working with the IRR office in Charlotte, North Carolina, since late 2009 on projects involving Caribbean property.
Also joining IRR is Director Paul J. Key, who was Mr. Andrews’ partner in local property consulting firm Andrews Key Ltd. In 1986, Mr. Key was appointed Director of Lands and Survey with the Cayman Islands government. He has been in the private sector here since 1988.
“Andrews Key is now Integra-Caribbean. We are in the process of letting all of our clients and the people we deal with know about the change,” Mr. Andrews said.
Examples of projects in which Andrews Key has been involved include the Cricket Square business park, the Residences at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, and Trump Island Villas on Canouan Island, Grenadines. For IRR, Mr. Andrews as worked on projects in places such as Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Turks and Caicos, and US Virgin Islands.
Mr. Andrews said, “We are excited to join the IRR fold. Joining Integra brings tremendous resources to our operation including a wealth of knowledge from the industry’s top individuals, and access to a wide array of contacts across the real estate realm. Our primary territory includes the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas, the US Virgin Islands; and we also regularly perform services in other English-speaking territories in the region such as the Turks & Caicos Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Our office plans to expand to have additional staff permanently located in the Virgin Islands and The Bahamas in the near future.”
For now, IRR’s Cayman office has three appraisers/surveyors, including Mr. Andrews and Mr. Key, plus support staff. The Cayman office will offer residential and commercial real estate valuation and consulting services throughout the Caribbean.
The Cayman office is IRR’s second international office, the first being IRR-Mexico.
Mr. Andrews said that joining IRR gives the Cayman office access to a host of resources, including information, people and name recognition, that will allow them to tackle larger projects around the Caribbean that they otherwise might have been reluctant to take on. From IRR’s perspective, the company has been keen to expand internationally, and the Cayman office is a good complement to the Mexico office.
Mr. Andrews said his office is already working with the Mexico office on a project. Also, IRR is looking to branch into Canada, and Canadian lenders already have a strong presence in the Caribbean.
Additionally, many of IRR’s clients in the US are lenders who lend in the Caribbean. Currently, those lenders are faced with hiring property appraisers from the US to go to the Caribbean because there are few appraisal firms they trust to do work that can be accepted in the US, Mr. Andrews said.
“Now we are really the first large valuation firm that has a physical office in the Caribbean region,” he said.
IRR-Caribbean specialises in valuation, quantity surveying and development consulting for resort properties, golf courses, marinas, hotels and commercial properties.
IRR President and COO Jeffrey Rogers said, “The Caribbean is a strategic choice for an IRR international office. There are many varied territories and governments adjacent to each other, making relationships with international clients convenient. We are also experiencing an influx of our US lenders and clients starting to develop and lend on projects in the Caribbean Islands. This office is a natural progression.”
Headquartered in New York City, IRR has 63 offices and 900 consultants and staff in the US, Mexico and the Caribbean. The firm was founded in 1999.
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