Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/5681/-1/140/
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BOB AND FAMILY CONTRIBUTE TO ANGUILLA'S DEVELOPMENT A Legacy Building For All Time
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John (Bob) Rogers is a well-respected Anguillian. He has made his mark on the development of Anguilla from the years preceding and during the 1967 Revolution and up to this present time.
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Bob and Lilian Rogers and two of their children, Cleone and Carlyle
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His contribution to his island home began many years ago when, as a young man, he travelled to England and from his earnings became one of the faithful contributors to what was then the remittance economy of Anguilla on which families and the impoverished society greatly depended.
On his return home he became a prominent taxi-driver and, up to his recent retirement, he has had the privilege and opportunity to see the tourist industry grow by leaps and bounds. He has also had the pleasure to witness the success of the Anguilla Revolution which has brought about much development for the island and to have been a part of that progress.
A family man, he has been able to enjoy the support of his wife, Lilian, and their four children, and to lead them into real estate development in terms of office accommodation, now a great need in Anguilla. They started with the two-storey building in the George Hill area which houses Caribbean Cable Communications and now have constructed another and even more impressive landmark building in the same locality – The Rogers’ Office Complex.
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The Rogers Office Complex
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“It is a family effort,” Bob proudly told The Anguillian last week at the opening ceremony of two spacious and multi-purpose sections of the building to house the expanding Community College Development Unit.
“I am a nationalist and a very stronger believer in Anguilla,” he asserted. “I was born and raised here and all my life I felt that I should make a contribution to the island.”
He continued: “When I went to England I was convinced that just how the Englishman loves his country, I love Anguilla and we all should do what is best for our country despite our difficult past.
“This building is in a very strategic location in Anguilla. In my view, the Rogers’ Office Complex represents life and my neighbour on the other side, Rey’s Funeral Home, represents death. It is only a road and a thin line between life and death so this is a very symbolic building. I hope that one day the Government will see the wisdom in putting this building on a postage stamp of Anguilla.”
Carlyle, one of Bob’s and Lillian’s four children, is the Managing Director of Global Consultants and Services (Anguilla) Limited, whose offices occupy the southern top floor of the building. The young academic holds a Master of Business Administration degree and a LLM degree in Corporate and Commercial Law but has no love for the limelight. In his words, he is “more focussed on work and getting things done.”
Coaxed into commenting on the imposing building and its office accommodation services, Carlyle said: “The hard work and life-savings of my parents are obviously an investment for growth purposes in Anguilla and for personal retirement circumstances as well…It is more of a legacy building, a manifestation of a marriage and a family life and a legacy to those coming after us. That is how I see it in the specific context. In the broader context I would agree that it is a landmark building in terms of the overall development of Anguilla.”
Pressed for further comment, he went on: “It is a simple yet elegant structure. It is a symmetrical building. What is upstairs is replicated downstairs and what is on the left side of the building is replicated on the right side. The idea of the building is to provide accommodation for private offices where there is not much flow through – meaning that the general public, by definition, doesn’t have to come to these offices and that is why it was ideal to put it outside the central business district in the Valley. You would only come to these offices if you have a specific purpose. That was my idea. However, it can be used for more public offices as well.
“In a small place like Anguilla, anything you do in building has to be multi-faceted so the Rogers’ Office Complex can be converted into other usages. For example, there was no thought given to a Community College or any Government office space here. The kitchenette and other areas that Government has rented were all designed to be common areas and places where office staff could meet and eat. Now they can be put to a more specific and commercial usage. One of the areas downstairs originally planned for private offices has been converted into a cafeteria.”
The Community College Development Unit and Global Consultants and Services Limited, as already mentioned, are two of the tenants in the building. The third is C.E.G. owned by Graham Crabtree, a Company Manager, operating under a licence issued by the Financial Services Commission. Though an Accountant, Mr. Crabtree provides Company Management and other related services.
Carlyle explained that Global Consultants and Services Limited, of which he is the Managing Director, as mentioned above, operates as a Company Manager like Mr. Crabtree, but also provides trustee services, serves as an Insurance Manager and is involved in the Offshore Finance Industry. The company operates under several different licences issued by the Financial Services Commission.
Asked to comment on the need for more local investment in Anguilla, he had this to say:
“Obviously, it lends itself to a more holistic development of the island and to less social dislocation with local as well as foreign investment. It will not result in a situation where, to a large extent, the economy is in the hands of foreign investors but where local persons have a major stake in the island.”
Carlyle’s two other brothers are also intimately involved in the building. The eldest brother, Clement, is the Contractor and the second brother, Conrad, who resides and works in Atlanta, Georgia, is the Architect. Their sister, Cleone, who backs them up, commented: “It has been a lot of hard work.”