As A.S. Cooper and Sons prepares to renovate its main building, it has opened another branch store Cooper's Express in the Washington Mall.

The company's overhaul consists of the expansion into several such stores as Cooper's MAN and Cooper's Cachet on Front Street in addition to the renovation.

Chief executive officer Peter Cooper sat down with and elaborated on the company's plans for the future.

Cooper's has been expanding its business through smaller stores in Hamilton for several years now, though with the planned renovations, the extra stores will help maintain merchandise availability for customers during the time of construction.

Mr. Cooper said that the construction was expected to start "in the early new year" and should take about two years to complete in total, with occupation of the building as a whole expected by November 2006. However, Mr. Cooper said he anticipated the building would be able to be occupied, in part, within 18 to 20 months.

Cooper's department store will be split into about seven stores throughout Hamilton during the renovations, which Mr. Cooper hopes will cover all of the services that the main store provides.

He said: "I am confident that, when the time comes, we will have (secured temporary space for) 100 percent (of our retail business)."

Mr. Cooper also said, although the retail spaces will be leased temporarily while the main building is being constructed, the company hopes to "keep the extra space for as long as possible".

Mr. Cooper said "space in town has already been secured to continue 90 percent of Cooper's business" during the renovations, such as the old Harrington jewellery store on Reid Street. Although the newly opened Cooper's Express will certainly aid this pursuit by handling all of the company's 'juniors' sales, Mr. Cooper confirmed that Cooper's will keep the separate store even after the renovations are complete.

He said: "The space may not always be Cooper's Express, but we hope to keep it."

With the main store's renovations and Cooper's many smaller stores around the Island, Mr. Cooper confirmed that the company is looking to expand its business.

He said: "We will expand on the good businesses we have now and provide more depth in the retail."

Plans are for the current five-storey Cooper's building to be demolished with the new building boasting a total of seven floors in addition to a basement. The first three floors are planned to be retail space, and the four on the Reid Street side of the building will be offices. The two retail floors that are most easily accessed from Front Street will be occupied by A.S. Cooper & Sons Ltd., while the third floor of retail, accessed from the Reid Street side of the building, will be leased to an outside retailer. The new building's basement, which the current building lacks, will be used for storage but, Mr. Cooper said, may be also used in part for some retail space.

The top three floors will be office space, and the middle floors, the third and fourth, have been sold on a "999 year lease".

Mr. Cooper said: "That way, they can do what they want with the space but will have to share common space" such as the Reid Street entrance lobby, and "though they have ownership of the floors, there will be maintenance fees for the common spaces".

The building was last renovated 28 years ago, according to Mr. Cooper, when the company bought the building, turning it into retail space. The building had previously hosted both the Bank of Bermuda and later the Bank of Butterfield, among other businesses, during each of the bank's renovations of their own main offices.

The new seven storey structure will have a similar facade to the current building with a tiered design of the top four floors, which will make them less visible from Front Street. Such design, reportedly, is required by the Bermuda Department of Planning, and the proposed Somers' Building on Front Street, the plans for which were detailed in the July 22 edition of features a similar design.

The restaurant that has operated on Cooper's terrace for more than five years, Caf? on the Terrace, will not be continued. Mr. Cooper said that Coopers has not been operating the caf? itself, but has been leasing the space, and although each floor of the new building will have a terrace, the caf?'s lease will not be renewed.

Plans for a new building have existed since 1996, and Mr. Cooper said that his company has been trying to find a partner to invest in the renovations ever since. Now that they have secured such a partner, the renovations are going forward, although Mr. Cooper declined to name the company's partner.

Neither would Mr. Cooper disclose the total cost of the renovations.