Vancouver, BC, Canada, July 2013 – A four-member consortium of entrepreneurs from BC, Alberta and Washington is pleased to announce its collaboration to form Bridgemans. Based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, the company will offer full-service floating accommodations vessels – “Floatels” – that features premium hotel and food services to workforces in any part of the world.
The consortium brings together considerable expertise and leadership experience in a wide range of fields, including engineering, construction, resource exploration, camp operations, hotel management and food services, commercial vessel operations and seafood production.
The partners are Andrew Purdey, owner of Prince George-based Ruskin Construction and a veteran of major construction projects in remote regions of Northwestern Canada and five other countries; Peter Kuttel of Seattle, Washington, whose business experience includes pioneering large-scale mechanical fish-processing operations on Alaska’s Bering Sea; Calgary-based energy exploration executive Paul Cheung and Brian Grange, a Vancouver-based entrepreneur and vice-president of iconic BC marine resort operator, The West Coast Fishing Club.
“Bridgemans is the result of about five years of discussions about offering unprecedented levels of service for workforces aboard floating accommodations facilities,” says Grange, who will serve as the company’s president. “Our strategy is ultimately to assist clients to retain workers by providing them with noticeably higher standards of food and accommodation services than what they might typically encounter, and at a manageable cost owing to the efficiencies of a water-born platform.”
Grange points out that establishing land-based accommodations facilities is not only costly, but most complicated too, and that Floatels offer simple, flexible and cost-effective solutions.
“Floatels can be expeditiously positioned and removed, and they can be re-positioned if required during the life of a contract,” says Grange. “They require fewer permits than land-based camps, they can be operated sustainably, and they leave no ecological footprint after departure.”
The partner foursome will guide a staff team whose initial focus will include conducting inspections of barges and ships in North America and Europe in search of mechanically and structurally sound platforms that can be refitted to provide superior levels of comfort and service for client workers.
Key milestones among the partnership group to date include completion of architectural designs and supplier contracts to provide modular housing systems for assembly about barge platforms, and preliminary work to identify ocean-going passenger vessels suitable and available for refitting and conversion.
Our floating accommodation solutions -“Floatels”- come in three classifications: cruise ships that have been refitted to feature single-room occupancy for large work forces of [600-1400]; customized accommodation barges that feature single-room occupancy for 300–450 occupants, and converted offshore vessels that can be dynamically positioned at sea and offer single room accommodation for 200-400 occupants.
In addition to providing comfortable and private hotel-like accommodations, we also specialize in full-service globally-inspired catering to appeal to a wide range of appetites, dietary and cultural requirements. Living environments include comfortable dining rooms and common areas, along with a range of amenities and activities.
Most importantly, we specialize in customizing to our clients exact needs and locations, ensuring that the full-service solution meets their exact specifications, including supply logistics and daily movement of crews to and from the job site.