Moving into its new offices at the Power House will be like home from home for Lancashire Insurance Group.

For the new state-of-the-art building is across the road from its current premises on the sixth floor at Mintflower Place in Par-la-Ville Road.

And the new offices are a mirror image of its base in London, which is also housed in a glass building, occupying the same number of floors with a similar amount of staff.

In fact Lancashire's new offices in Bermuda are not only similar to the outside of the building, but also the interior in terms of its open floor plan, according to Lancashire's chief operating officer Dan Soares. He said the company's 39 employees will go from being spread out over three floors at Mintflower Place to taking over the fifth and sixth floors at the Power House.

"We needed more space and rather than having a fragmented space with three floors, we decided to go down to just two floors," Mr. Soares said

In the current financial crisis, with supply outstripping demand and landlords having to be more competitive on the deals they offer, Lancashire have been able to negotiate a few parts of the contract, including the installation of a bike rack in the basement for its environmentally-friendly staff, six of whom cycle to work every day, and are working on trying to get a corporate gym put into the design, said Mr. Soares. "We signed our lease terms before the financial turmoil happened," he said. "So now we are looking for additional value out of the agreement." Mr. Soares said that despite moving the company's operations lock, stock and barrel to the other side of the street, there were no plans to increase its staff base. There will be three offices, for the legal counsel, chief financial officer and controller, and human resources, at the new premises, as well as a board room and meeting room for video conferencing with the London office, with the management team being fully integrated with the staff, he said.

Other features comprise a recreation area complete with a pool table and Wii game for employees, brokers and clients.

The decor inside the offices will be designed by OBM Architecture & Interior Design.

"The 3D drawings of the office have been delivered by OBM for staff to look at, which has built up some excitement," said Mr. Soares. "It is all quite exciting and I think it is a good move for us."

The company's London operation, which is based in the Vitro Building just across from Fenchurch Street Station, occupies the ninth and 11th floors and has a staff base of about 40 comprising an underwriting and marketing team. It also has offices at the DIFC complex in Dubai, run by a four-strong marketing team.