Residents passing The Mall Drive in the vicinity of Burger King may have noticed a new structure being erected next to Star General, which will soon be the new home of Cable Bahamas and its parent company Colum-bus Communications.

In an exclusive interview with The Freeport News yesterday, Edris Wilson, operations manager of Cable Bahamas' Freeport office, said ground was broken on the new site back in November 2007.

The construction process has been on target since then, she said, and the anticipated completion date is the end of March 2009. "We expect that the building should be occupied fully by the end of April 2009," she said.

The construction work is being undertaken by a number of local contractors; however, Wilson explained that the company also employs its own engineers to manage the project.

"Cable Bahamas and Columbus Communications ? because of the operations that we have, not only in The Bahamas but in Jamaica and Trinidad ? are always in the process of building plants and facilities and so we always have a construction team ready and available and ready to be present wherever we need their services," Wilson explained.

Describing the two-sto-rey, 20,000 square foot building as a "state of the art structure," Wilson said it will house all of the companies' offices, which are presently scattered across the island.

The company currently rents office space in the Paradox building and the Seventeen Shopping Centre, among other locations.

"Our technical staff here in Freeport, our administrative and customer care team in addition to our 'IT' team as well, will relocate to the new building. We do have our warehousing facility that will also be relocated to that structure," she said.

Wilson noted that several top-level managers operate from Grand Bahama locations, making the move a wise one for the company economically.

Cable Bahamas' payment facilities will also be housed in the new building, which Wilson said is a good idea since it will provide a more comfortable environment for customers.

"We expect to provide more space for our customers to do business with us because doing business in comfort is very much important," she said. "We will also have a sales and retail department to showcase all of the products and services that we have and offer. We're pretty excited."

Noting that the company had occupied its current location for the past 10 years, Wilson said she believes the relocation will greatly affect business in a positive way.

"I think we've outgrown the space here. Our customers, especially at month's end, we draw a big crowd and so it can be quite cramped and uncomfortable at times and so we want to make sure that every day customers do business with us it's going to be a comfortable and an enjoyable experience."

Wilson said the previous location was so cramped that it affected the operations of the company to the extent that they were unable to hire any summer employees because of a lack of space.

The operations manager added that the company is always aiming to improve its services and to stay abreast of the latest the market has to offer.

"With Cable Bahamas it's always a work in progress," she said. "We're always reinventing ourselves; always looking for new and improved services to offer to the public and it's every likelihood that we will be able to do that."

According to the company's website, Cable Bahamas has been providing cable television services in The Bahamas since March 1995, and Internet services since March of 2000.

Two significant growth areas for the company are its high speed Internet services and its wholly-owned submarine 600 km fibre optic cable system, which is operated by its subsidiary Caribbean Crossings Ltd.

The website states that Cable Bahamas is the leader in delivering The Bahamas' fastest and most reliable high speed Internet service.

By ANGELO ARMBRISTER