traNsPerfect exPaNds iN saN JuaN

Phil Shawe of TransPerfect >Archive

TransPerfect to Open Training Center in San Juan

$30 million investment marks continued confidence in Puerto Rico

Zoe Landi Fontana, The Weekly Journal

TransPerfect, reportedly the world’s largest provider of language and technology solutions for global business, announced that it has officially acquired property in Puerto Rico as the location for its Management Learning Center, committing to a $30 million investment.

The new training center will be equipped with conference facilities and accommodations, and enhanced with state-of-the-art technology and connectivity. With its new facility, TransPerfect’s staff members will have the opportunity to participate in more frequent and effective group training in a retreat environment. The project’s timeline is projected to begin in the first quarter of 2022 and finish by the end of that year, with the first trainings to be held in 2023. Chief Revenue Officer at TransPerfect, Kevin Obarski, commented, “The strength of our culture is what defines TransPerfect. We’ve always invested heavily in face-to-face interactions between our employees, and those bonds are a big part of what has carried us to where we are today. This new facility takes that commitment to the next level.” TransPerfect has offices in over 100 cities and spans six continents, offering services in more than 170 languages to over 5,000 organizations globally. Year-to-date in 2021, the company has grown 29 percent and surpassed $1 billion in annual billed revenue. In the third quarter of 2021, TransPerfect also reported that its sales had risen by 31 percent over the same period last year. “The $1 billion mark is a milestone we’ve had our sights on for a long time. While sales performance is not our only important metric, our philosophy is that beyond being a good indicator of overall demand, revenue helps measure how much value we’re able to add to our clients’ businesses in totality,” stated Phil Shawe, the company’s president and CEO.

Buoyed by these strong numbers, the company is currently hiring locally in San Juan, in addition to expecting to hire hundreds more worldwide.

The recent transaction on the new training center, brokered by Paco Diaz of Luxury Collection Real Estate in San Juan and financed through Oriental Bank, highlights the company’s continued interest in Puerto Rico’s talent pool and economic benefits. They continue their pledge to hire a diverse range of professionals across multiple areas, including language services production, technology R&D, and sales and client services. Other positions for which they are actively recruiting include project managers, software developers and software engineers. As reported by THE WEEKLY JOURNAL in 2019, Shawe expressed his confidence in San Juan as a business hub with an extensive pool of local talent. In

In fact, an interview with THE WEEKLY JOURNAL, Shawe explained that a main driver for Puerto Rico is Buoyed that “there is a tremendous need by its strong for Spanish translations and we revenue numbers, know many people are bilingual TransPerfect is in Puerto Rico. That was key in currently hiring our decision-making process.” locally in San Juan, in He noted that many of the addition to expecting company’s jobs are for educated to hire hundreds and skilled workers, in the sense more worldwide. that they require a certain level of knowledge of English and Spanish. An additional motivator for TransPerfect was the availability of tax benefits in Puerto Rico, on which Shawe commented, “We will comply with the letter and spirit of the law and create jobs in Puerto Rico. It’s a win-win for all of us.” At the time, in 2019, TransPerfect had invested an estimated $200,000 for their new office in Hato Rey’s business district. The space was suitable for 50 employees and was partially chosen for how well it stood up to hurricanes.

Paradores Association: Millions in Unpaid Taxes by Short-Term Rental Owners

In 2021, estimated at over $70 million

Zoe Landi Fontana, The Weekly Journal

Conservative estimates reflect that, in 2021, revenues on stays in independently owned shortterm accommodations in Puerto Rico could reach $450 million, while the evasion of taxes, contributions, permits, and regulatory patents and charges could exceed $70 million. Furthermore, over 80 percent of the 25,000 independently owned accommodations that operate on the island are businesses administered by consolidators, and many allegedly operate as illegal hotels. These findings were some of the charges brought by the president of the Paradores

Association, Xavier Ramírez, who said that, “the vast majority of these independent accommodations are businesses with dozens of units and significant rentals, and they should comply with all of the requirements, permissions, licenses, patents, insurance and minimum standards required for other similar enterprises and even those much smaller.” According to the head of the Paradores

Association, Puerto Rico “[already] has the necessary laws and regulations to address the registration and regulation of this segment of short-term accommodations, and there are other areas of permits, patents, licenses and contributions that every municipality and other government agencies are responsible for implementing. “It is time to assert our laws, and we can start with the consistent registration and payment of taxes. The Puerto Rico Tourism Company (PRTC) has Law 272 from 2003 and regulations 8395 from 2013 and 8856 from 2016, which empower it to enforce the registration and minimum regulations on these accommodations, and it can enforce fines and sanctions of up to $25,000 if they are not compliant,” Ramírez pointed out. Despite repeated efforts to contact the PRTC, as of press time, officials there had not responded to THE WEEKLY JOURNAL’s requests. According to Christian Rivera, vice president of the association that represents small inns across the island, given that many of these accommodations are posted on the internet, on several well-known platforms, identifying them and communicating with their owners or professional operators should be relatively simple. “In 2017, the association collaborated with the Cabo Rojo municipality and identified over 300 units of short-term, independent accommodations and their owners. [About] 90 percent of these accommodations belonged to non-residents of the city, which defeats the myth that the majority belong to the sharing economy,” he claimed. The Paradores Association acknowledged that some of the 25,000 independent accommodations are necessary to support efforts to improve Puerto Rico’s tourism product. As such, the two officials indicated they are pushing for them to be duly registered and audited by the government. To date, however, the organization estimates that less than 17 percent are legally registered.

Short-term rentals have boomed in recent years. >Courte-

Arrival of MS The World in San Juan for a three-day stop

In other tourism news, the residential cruise ship MS The World arrived on Nov. 1, after a seven year absence, to Pier 4 in Old San Juan for a threeday transit stop, as dictated in port agreements between the cruise line, the Health Department and the Ports Authority, and in compliance with requirements from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The ship arrived in San Juan from St. Martin on Nov. 1 and will depart the evening of Nov. 3. Its occupancy of 339 people, made up of 246 crew members and 93 residents, is 100 percent vaccinated against COVID-19, and passenger-residents must be older than 18 years old, according to a statement from the PRTC. Additionally, in compliance with the rigorous protocols established by the CDC and Puerto Rico government, the ship’s crew follows heightened sanitation procedures and performs routine tests to detect COVID-19 aboard the vessel. Operated by the company ResidenSea Ltd, the MS The World comprises a community of passengers, each owning their own luxury residential unit on the vessel. The ship travels throughout the world’s oceans, visiting dozens of countries and stopping in ports for a couple of days at a time. The arrival of this cruise ship to Puerto Rico is another boost to the island’s tourism industry and vision as a desirable vacation destination, and joins more than a dozen cruises that include San Juan on their itinerary, the PRTC said.