Barclays Seen Leasing Four Floors At MBFC

Source : The Business Times, October 25, 2007

British bank among several eyeing new financial hotspot

British bank Barclays is expected to sign a lease soon for about 100,000 square feet of space - or four floors - at Marina Bay Financial Centre's 50-storey Tower 2, industry observers say. This will be under the project's first phase, to be completed early in 2010.

So far, MBFC's developer has signed up Swiss private bank Pictet and UK-based stockbroking firm Icap as tenants for Tower 2. They will take 25,000 sq ft and 35,000 sq ft respectively.

Singapore's DBS is also believed to be close to finalising a deal to lease about 700,000 sq ft at MBFC's Tower 3, which will also be 50 storeys high. This tower, which will have about 1.3 million sq ft of net lettable space for offices, is part of the second phase of the development, slated for completion in late 2011.

A host of other foreign banks - including Royal Bank of Scotland, Merrill Lynch, HSBC, JP Morgan and Lehman Brothers - are also in negotiations for space at MBFC, industry observers say.

MBFC's 33-storey Tower 1 has been fully leased, mostly to Standard Chartered which is taking 508,298 sq ft. Smaller tenants signed up at this tower include French corporate and investment bank Natixis, which is taking 65,000 sq ft, and Wellington International Management Co (21,000 sq ft).

MBFC is developed by a consortium comprising Keppel Land, Hongkong Land and Cheung Kong Holdings. The trio also developed One Raffles Quay (ORQ) nearby. Barclays would be the first common tenant in the two developments. It occupies about 90,000 sq ft on the top three levels of ORQ's 27-storey South Tower.

Barclays has also leased premises at Samsung Hub (about 52,400 sq ft) and Capital Square (more than 40,000 sq ft) - both in Church Street - and at The Atrium @ Orchard near Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station (about 80,000 sq ft).

MBFC's total development cost is estimated at more than $4 billion. Its developers clinched the 99-year leasehold site in an Urban Redevelopment Authority tender in July 2005 and bought the land parcel in two phases - paying $381 per square foot per plot ratio for the initial phase in 2005, and an effective land price of $435 psf ppr for the second phase earlier this year under a formula that factored in an increase in office land values in the vicinity since the initial bid in the 2005 tender.

The entire site can be developed to yield a gross floor area of about 4.7 million sq ft.