Pearman Watlington Ltd. may be a textbook example of how to reinvent a sprawling family business by focusing on the core aspects of the business.

It is the Island's largest marine retailer, a major player in commercial property development and the leading speciality food retailer.

This last division of the group which owns and runs Miles Market, is possibly the most visible part of the group, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.

The office building which houses Miles as well as the Zurich building across the way and all the land extending down to the water are also part of the Pearman Watlington empire.

That plot of land, known as the WaterFront development, is now entering a second phase of development.

At the moment that phase is just a building site, but all the pieces are falling into place for the final stage of construction - offices and 23 residential units including some with private berths.

The marina will be completed by this June, says chief executive officer, Will Cox. The rest will be constructed over 24 months starting in September.

Rolling out the architectural drawings, Mr. Cox runs through how the whole project has developed over the last seven years.

The WaterFront property had previously been the site of a supermarket, a car showroom, a garden centre and an old building which used to house the Dunbarton School of Music.

The transformation of this land into a mixed office, residential and retail complex took some vision.

"It was my Dad's lifetime dream," says Mr. Cox.

His father, the late Harry Cox, had a tremendous amount of input into the design and strategy of the WaterFront development.

"He used to say the family will be judged in the future by the quality of the overall development.

"It's easy to build square boxes, but we wanted to get away from that."

Determined to achieve the best possible design concept, they asked several international architects to present plans for the project.

"It was one of the most incredibly creative things I've ever done.

"We ended up with a three firm shortlist. These guys were given two weeks to turn it around." CBT architects were eventually selected for the best overall concept.

Phase I began in 1996 with the construction of Miles Market in an underground location with the Miles office building (now home to PartnerRe and Tyco) above. At the same time, negotiations took place with Centre Re to construct their world headquarters, the Zurich building.

The WaterFront became a unique collaboration between tourism, represented by Hamilton Princess who owned a strip of the land, international business (Centre Re) and local retail (Pearman Watlington).

There was a massive need for class A office space at the time but it was not easy to get property finance developments off the ground in those days.

"Contractors didn't give performance bonds, project management was non-existent and the legal fraternity were breaking new ground with this deal," says Mr. Cox.

Over the road, another commercial development on the site of the old Bermudiana hotel had collapsed.

None of it would have been possible if they had not completed a restructuring in the early 90s of the entire operating company, Pearman Watlington. They went through an "extremely tough time" but the resulting structure of distinct operating companies for both retail and property interests, allowed the WaterFront projects to be secured against their own land and allowed them to raise capital.

Centre Re, the future tenant, helped to finance the construction of their new offices through a leaseback transaction.

Later ACE and XL would build their headquarters on the nearby Bermudiana hotel site, dramatically altering the skyline at the western end of Hamilton. "We consulted with the local planning authorities and got everyone working in the same direction. That built a momentum for other developments," Mr. Cox said. Phase II of the WaterFront is now well underway with the marina now nearing completion.

As announced earlier this week, PW's Marine will be relocating from its current prime position on the WaterFront site to new premises on Serpentine Road. This accomplishes a major piece of the whole giant puzzle.

One of the lesser known parts of the Pearman Watlington group, PW's Marine has about 55 percent of the marine sales and servicing sector. Its major competitors in the market are Marine Locker and A&P Marine. The new Serpentine Road site was bought from HWP and there has been long term co-operation between the two groups. It already has a large yard currently used for vehicle repairs and Mr. Cox says they will be able to accommodate vessels of up to forty feet for repairs. "We intend to develop a custom built facility for our marine sales and service department."

It may seem strange to move the marine service division away from the water, but they will retain some berths for servicing purposes back at the WaterFront.

Besides, it would be hard to justify maintaining a boat shop on prime real estate with water on both sides.

He will not be drawn on an exact price tag for the new residential units, but my estimate of at least $2 million for each two bedroom condominium is not disputed.

Meanwhile, the development of the Serpentine Road marine sales and service centre may be only the beginning for that site.

Mr. Cox says he sees that part of North Hamilton as ripe for development of mixed commercial and residential projects.

"You have the potential to put residential buildings next to large parking space. The Bull's Head car park becomes pivotal."

He admires Sir John Swan's Atlantis development on Parliament and Victoria Street.

"I think that project is a visionary development that we're watching carefully.

"That density of units is a much higher risk proposal. It's much easier to let an office apartment to one tenant than to find seventy tenants." However he sees a great demand in Bermuda for residential developments that hit middle income: "How you get a piece of the rock in Bermuda is pretty difficult."

Mr. Cox seems to have a lot of balls in the air.

One of his favourite projects is the Family Learning Centre: "I believe that if you can impact a child in Bermuda you can actually make a change here. In Bermuda, that happens one child at a time."

He still adopts a hands on approach at Miles, and was able to give an update on an alleged Island-wide shortage of Walkers Crisps: "They were delayed but they're here now," he smiles.

During a brief tour of the meat department, he tells a story which casts some light on his management style. Back in 1997 when they were redeveloping Miles, one of his butchers turned up on his doorstep with a bottle of wine and said words to the effect of: "I don't like the way the new store is developing and we need to talk about how it should be done."

That same employee, Alan Leamey, is now manager at Miles Market. To my comment that some bosses would not have taken kindly to criticism of that sort, Mr. Cox says: "I believe in letting people be adults."