The former site of the HWP showroom has been given a face lift and is set to open as a marine showroom for Pearman Watlington & Co. Ltd., the company that owns Miles Market.

The company yesterday confirmed that it is to open the showroom for its boats, and said it had bought the entire site from HWP, including the large cycle space and car park which they hoped to develop in the future.

Yesterday "watch this space" posters went up in the showroom window, in advance of the boats being rolled in.

"It is a great site that will give us more exposure," said Wayne Balcombe, financial controller of PW's. "It will give us a bit more room and will allow us to upgrade our systems."

Mr. Balcombe said that the showroom and service for the company's boat division was currently located next to Miles Market, but this was to be vacated to make way for phase two of the company's water development.

"Like Miles got a face lift a few years ago, so will the marine section," said Mr. Balcombe.

The main office for PW's will stay in the new office complex above Miles Market, but all the sales and service will move to the new site.

The showroom will be able to hold a couple of boats, while the company looks at what to do with the rest of the site.

PW's exchanged the site with the St. John's Road site HWP has moved to, and it has left PW's with a large plot which over a block which only excludes the World Distributors site.

"We did a swap of the land," said Mr. Balcombe. "So we weren't paying each other as much rent."

The scooter division of HWP is still located on the site for the moment, but the space in the parking lot in front of the office, which runs along Woodlands Road could also house some of the company's boats.

The company said it is still evaluating how much of the new space it will need for its operations.