Prudential to move to Tun Razak Exchange by 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Prudential will be relocating its headquarters to a 27-storey building in the upcoming Tun Razak Exchange here, Malaysia’s first dedicated international financial district.

Slated for opening by 2019, the building will house all of Prudential’s life insurance and asset management businesses in Malaysia under one roof.

Master developer TRX City Sdn Bhd CEO Datuk Azmar Talib said it now moves even closer towards realising TRX as a truly international financial district, with the confirmed participation of some of the world’s top banks and financial institutions.

The commercial tower, currently under construction, is developed by TRX. The Prudential plot is adjacent to TRX’s main pedestrian gateway from the Bukit Bintang area.

Currently, Prudential’s offices are spread out across Jalan Sultan Ismail and Bukit Bintang. The move will consolidate all its operations in the new building, which will include a walk-in customer service centre.

Prudential has been in Asia for more than 90 years, with Malaysia as its longest established operation in the region.

To date, TRX has signed global property and infrastructure group Lendlease to jointly develop the Lifestyle Quarter; HSBC Malaysia and Affin Bank Bhd for office towers; Indonesia’s leading property developer Mulia International to build Signature Tower; Lembaga Tabung Haji and WCT Bhd for residential plots, and global leader in water management Veolia Water Technologies as the water treatment and recycling concessionaire.

Source : http://www.thesundaily.my/node/473415

Lendlease gets okay for construction of TRX

PROPERTY and infrastructure group Lendlease Corp has received all the approvals to progress the Lifestyle Quarter of the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) to the next stage and has moved into the construction phase of the development.

Australia-listed Lendlease is the joint-venture partner of TRX City Sdn Bhd in developing the Lifestyle Quarter at TRX, a 6.88ha mixed-use development.

Lendlease owns 60% of the partnership, while the remaining 40% stake is held by TRX City.

Lendlease is also the development and construction manager for the project, which has an estimated development end value of around RM8 billion.

Among the approvals received by the company include the Earthworks Plan Approval from the Kuala Lumpur City Hall that would allow it to proceed with construction at the site.

“With the approvals, works at the TRX Lifestyle Quarter comprising a new city centre retail mall, six residential towers, a luxury hotel and park are now in full swing.

“The excavation has been completed. Piling for the retail component is progressing well, with almost 500 structural piles completed,” the group announced in a statement yesterday.

With over 120,774 sq m (1.3 million sq ft) of net lettable area, the project has to date leased 26% of its retail space to include Japanese departmental store Seibu, an

upscale supermarket brand by Hong Kong-based Dairy Farm Group, and a Golden Screen Cinemas theatre.

TRX is an upcoming RM40 billion international finance and business district located between Jalan Tun Razak and Jalan Bukit Bintang.

Its master developer is TRX City, a wholly owned unit of the Ministry of Finance Inc.

Source : https://themalaysianreserve.com/2017/09/15/lendlease-gets-okay-construction-trx/

China’s CCCC to make KL its Asean hub, build tower at TRX

 

CCCC’s land at TRX is near Land Lease Lifestyle Quarter’s mall (above) there.

BEIJING: China Communications Construction Co Ltd (CCCC) intends to make Kuala Lumpur its hub for the Asean region as the port and construction group expands its footprint here.

“We will set up our regional centre in Kuala Lumpur,” CCCC vice-president Peng Dapeng told reporters at the group’s headquarters in Beijing.

He said the group was building the “CCCC tower”, a commercial building in the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX).

“We have acquired the land. We are in the midst of reviewing the project so details are scant now,” he said, without disclosing the gross development value (GDV) and investment value.

“We will have our regional head office there for Asean and some portion of the tower will be rented out,” Peng said, adding that the group currently had eight regional hubs globally.

“Malaysia is very important to us. As you can see, the contract value we have in Malaysia is the highest among other Asean countries. Currently, we have more than US$16bil (RM67.27bil) worth of on-going contracts in hand. We believe this number will be bigger in the future,” he added.

In August, CCCC’s Malaysian unit had agreed to subscribe to 15% in WCT Precious Development Sdn Bhd (WCTPD), which had earlier acquired a plot measuring 71,986 sq ft in the TRX district from 1MDB Real Estate Sdn Bhd (1MDBRE) for RM223mil.

CORE (Singapore) TRX Investment Pte Ltd, a company related to CCCC’s sister company CCCG Real Estate Group Ltd (both companies are owned by China Communications Construction Group Ltd), owns a controlling 65% stake in WCTPD. The remaining 20% is held by WCT Land Sdn Bhd.

The land was then earmarked for the construction of a proposed tower block of high-end serviced apartments with a GDV of about RM1.1bil. WCT Holdings Bhd’s unit WCT Bhd was given the letter of award by 1MDBRE  contract to undertake the construction.

Source : http://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2017/09/25/china-state-owned-cccc-to-make-kl-its-asean-hub/#9fr2mjJzfjPbGWdU.99

Tech changing office space trend as price down

• Thursday, 12 Oct 2017

Report launched: (from left) Sarkunan, InvestKL CEO Datuk Zainal Amanshah and Knight Frank Asia-Pacific head of research Nicholas Holt at the launching of Global Cities: The 2018 Report.

 

KUALA LUMPUR: Technology is not only creating ripples in the retail scene. Two obvious trends are emerging in the Klang Valley office space.

Landlords are seeing a flight to quality as multinational companies (MNCs) and local corporations take advantage of the availability of better grade office space at competitive rates and attractive tenancy terms, said Knight Frank Malaysia executive director (corporate services) Teh Young Khean.

The second trend is the growth in serviced office segment, or co-working space, as millennials and older businessmen and women turn to short-term office rental of a month or two.

“It is clean, easy and convenient. The people who opt for serviced office space need not get into the hassle of hiring staff or buying furniture or other utility bills. When they rent serviced office space, all that comes in a single bill. They opt for this segment of the office space to meet a short-term need before they go to the next city,” said Teh.

Teh was speaking to StarBiz after the launch of the fourth edition of Global Cities: The 2018 Report.

Changes in technology is supporting a flexible working culture, said Teh, and this has resulted in the rising popularity of the serviced office segment.

“Demand for co-working space is expected to grow across a diverse mix of industries and professions such as technology start-ups and small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).”

Teh said clients are searching for good deals in the office market in order to turn this space into co-working space.

A co-working space centre may have space of between 20,000 and 30,000 sq ft. Some could be larger.

But like everything else, they are selective.

The first, said Teh, is connectivity. It has to be close to public transport with easy access to amenities. This brings to mind mixed integrated development, said Teh.

“They also like malls because everything can be found under one roof,” said Teh. They also like new buildings with large floor plates although there are times when, if the opportunity arises, they can turn a single medium-level block into an entire centre of co-working space,” said Teh, who saw this happening in Singapore and other cities.

Teh said out of the 100mil sq ft of office space in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, about 500,000 sq ft, or 0.5%, are being used as co-working space today.

“This is growing,” he said, due in part to high grade office space available at very competitive rental rates compared with other cities in the region.

Regus, the operator of co-working space, which has 30 centres across Malaysia has signed up for space in a strata office block in Bukit Bintang City Centre

 

Source :  http://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2017/10/12/tech-changing-office-space-trend/#0hFHYf6FjG8iU1iU.99