Trinidad and Tobago conglomerate Agostini Limited will complete the construction of its second planned warehouse in two months and expressions of interest have been pouring in from mostly foreign companies, Country Manager Blaine Chee-Ping has said.
He explained that interests for the space came from businesses across the sectors and not just oil and gas service provision.
Fetching a monthly rental cost of US$4,000, Chee-Ping said, there are nine warehouse spaces which also come outfitted with offices that have to be furnished by the tenant.
Last December he had told this newspaper in an interview that Agostini had plans to add to its over $3 billion in investments from two companies established here, as it was looking to also bring a number of the companies and international franchises it already holds in its home country.
After the purchase of some 17.2 acres of land aback the Houston/Rome area in 2018, construction was moving rapidly apace to meet the demands for warehouse and office spaces in the area.
“At present, we are a Trinidadian-owned company so we haven’t reached the local content [requirements]. We have not dealt much with the energy sector per se as yet either. We have had some enquiries and the first thing they ask is for local content certification which we do not meet at this point in time. So we have not been concentrating on that side of the business at all,” Chee-Ping, had said.
“The Agostini group itself is probably the fourth largest conglomerate in the Caribbean. It also represents Starbucks in Tri-nidad, which falls under Prestige Holdings Limited’s management and thus the bringing of Star-bucks – a first store in Amazonia Mall. And we made a commitment to Starbucks to do seven stores in two and half years here in Guyana. But that is only a bite because we have big plans for Guyana… and here will only get better,” he added.
There is still land to be developed but the company has not yet made a decision on what it will be.
Agostini’s interest in Guyana grew when, four years ago, it created two companies here and purchased land in Houston. It rented a space in Eccles Indus-trial site from its DeSinco partner, as it worked out plans to build spaces to rent to smaller companies who could not afford to purchase land and construct their own buildings at Houston. That land investment cost the company US$500,000. To build the structure that is currently on the property cost another $1.3 billion.
Overall, Chee-Ping said that over $3 billion has been invested in Guyana since the two companies were formed.
He noted that when Guyana discovered oil and those discoveries increased, Agostini knew that it would only be a matter of time before there would be transformational development here, and it acted.
“We have basically two companies in Guyana,” the Country Manager outlined. “One is Agostini Guyana Inc, which is this one. We do interior construction products, just for the interior finishing of anything – offices, hotels anything. We do ceilings, glass doors, flooring, carpeting, all sorts of stuff… the other company is called Agostini Properties Inc. That one owns the land in the Houston/Rome area.
“We purchased in December towards 2018. I guess we had the foresight but everybody knew that once oil was discovered the country was going to take off. When we bought the land we had no idea the highway would be passing just 20 feet from where we would be. All that was just bush. The intention, always was to have a presence in Guyana. We knew that the country was going to be developing fast. We knew, from experience that there would be a lot of new companies coming into the country and that there would also be a lot of startup companies coming into the country. So what we initially decided to do is what you see on the site. It is a warehouse complex and it is geared mainly to the small startup companies.” he added.
The companies moved into the Eccles building in February of 2020 but plans were brought to an abrupt halt because of COVID-19. Agostini Interiors had already shipped seven containers with stocks of its interior outfitting products, which included drop ceiling, gypsum sheeting, and office furniture. “It’s kind of been up and down and not a lot of people know we are at the back here [Eccles Industrial Site]. We are doing some advertising but we have not yet had a steady flow of customers in and out. We do interior outfitting products. Anything for the interior of your hotel, your office, we could supply that. We have drop ceiling, we have a line of office furniture and supply those. We do a lot of gypsum sheeting for walls. It is a new technology for Guyanese – the metal stud and strap.”
After the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted here, Trinidad and Tobago still had strict measures so the Country Manager had to wait until those were lifted before returning.
But when he returned, work continued and the office warehouse space was completed in Houston and today it forges ahead.
