Bermuda is set to see a glut of available office space as hundreds of thousands of extra square feet of commercial real estate becomes available.

That is the view of Paul Lowry, a director of construction industry professional services firm Woodbourne Associates, who believes the economic downturn will reduce demand for office space and rents.

"There is about 3.5 million square feet of office space in Hamilton right now, excluding Government offices," Mr. Lowry said. "Immediately outside Hamilton, there is about another million square feet of existing space.

"That's a total of 4.5 million square feet. There is currently about 500,000 square feet under development — that is about 12 percent of the existing total.

"Some will replace older buildings, but most of it is for new people. With an average of about 400 square feet per person, that would mean space being added for more than 1,250 new people.

"Where are they coming from? And where will they and their wives and dependants live? Where will their children go to school? The recent economic meltdown will, of course, impact on this situation, with more office space being vacated, and so a glut of office space and a reduction of office rents is a somewhat inevitable result."

Woodbourne Associates Ltd., which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, has civil, structural and building services engineers; quantity, building and land surveyors; project and property managers; and valuers. The firm has consulted, one way or another, on almost all the major projects that have transformed the look of Bermuda in the past three decades.

Woodbourne Associates was founded in 1978 by an amalgamation of the practices of Geoffrey Bird & Company, a firm of building, quantity, and valuation surveyors and Outerbridge & Redmond, a firm of civil and structural engineers. Almost immediately Woodbourne Associates was established, it began to play a part in the building of the modern Bermuda.

"There is hardly a building goes up in Bermuda that we are not involved in, one way or another," said Woodbourne director Paul Lowry, who has been with the firm since it started. "If we're not involved in one or more aspects of the engineering design, we may be involved as cost consultants, project managers, or as estimators for the general contractors or subcontractors." Mr. Lowry said that office building in Hamilton may be headed for a glut.

Despite being very busy, Woodbourne Associates has suffered from the time limits imposed on work permits by the Government, Mr. Lowry said.

"There is at the moment a worldwide shortage of mechanical engineers and quantity surveyors," he said. "Only three countries are reportedly net exporters of quantity surveyors: New Zealand, South Africa and Canada.

"New Zealand is in fact no longer exporting them, and Canada trains them differently. They're in fantastic demand around the world." And yet, "one of our directors has left", Mr. Lowry said. "While waiting more than a year for a decision on key person status he received a job offer elsewhere, so he left.

"Another of our directors, a mechanical engineer, has been told he can't be classed as a key employee, so he will leave the spring after next. That might cause us to lay off a Bermudian who works in that discipline."

He continued: "We strongly feel that the Government should make quantity surveyors and certain engineers key people. The local sector should be treated like the international sector as far as term limits are concerned. There is a dearth of mechanical engineers, and yet our mechanical engineer has been told he's got to go!"

The firm has 21 professional registrations among 15 professionals in four branches of engineering and several branches of surveying, "so when the work slows down in one area, it may very well increase in another", Mr. Lowry said.

Among the most important changes that the firm has witnessed have been technological developments in the way buildings are constructed. "We have to learn and keep up with how to install the new materials, what they cost, and how long they will last," Mr. Lowry said. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) techniques include energy-efficient design that uses less energy, recycles water and provides other environmental advantages. "It costs more," Mr. Lowry explained.

"In the US, the average building cost increase to become LEED-certified is seven percent more. Here in Bermuda, it's more, perhaps 11 percent, but it leads to savings over time as the building is more efficient."

Among local buildings, the new Bank of Bermuda HSBC building and Victoria Place are LEED-certified. "We have had one of our people LEED-certified, so that we could monitor the work on such buildings," Mr. Lowry said.

Woodbourne Associates has kept actively involved in all the local professional and business organisations throughout its 30 years. "We've had two past presidents of the Bermuda Association of Surveyors and two past presidents of the Bermuda Association of Professional Engineers," Mr. Lowry said. "I've served on the Professional Surveyors Registration Council, and my colleagues have served, and still serve, on the Professional Engineers Registration Council. I've served as chairman of the local branch of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and I'm on the Council of the Bermuda Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. My colleagues serve in similar capacities in the engineering fields. Woodbourne is an Associate Member of the Construction Association. Many of our staff are members of any number of professional associations."

Just over 70 percent of the firm's employees are Bermudian, and two scholarships are currently being given in engineering. Several other scholarships and financial assistance with overseas training have been given in the past. "One of our proudest achievements has been to help to train Alex DeCouto, who went on to become president of the Construction Association, and a very effective one he is too," Mr. Lowry said.

"We want to make sure that in our next 30 years there are Bermudians coming along to fill the slots," he concluded.