A-Reit In Development Projects Totalling $277m

Source : The Business Times, 19 October 2007

ASCENDAS Real Estate Investment Trust (A-Reit) yesterday announced new investments for development projects at Changi Business Park and in Jurong totalling $277 million, including about 42,000 square metres of built-to-suit (BTS) business park space at Changi Business Park pre-committed to a 'leading international financial institution'.

The trust did not identify the party but market watchers said that it may be Citibank.

Giving details of A-Reit's new investments, the trust's manager Ascendas-MGM Funds Management said that they include the development of Changi Business Park's Plot 8 into three business park buildings - two BTS buildings and a multi-tenant block with an amenity podium. These buildings are on land of 29,864 sq m with 30 + 30 year tenure and will have a combined gross floor area of 74,660 sq m (803,633 sq ft).

The BTS portion pre-committed to the financial institution will be built in two phases, the first slated for completion in the first quarter of 2009 and the second in Q4 2010.

The multi-tenant building, with a gross floor area of about 33,000 sq m, will have about 6,000 sq m of amenity space to cater to the increasing population at Changi Business Park. The project is expected to be ready in second-half 2009.

The total cost for all phases of the development is $191 million.

Over at Pioneer Walk in Jurong, A-Reit will develop industrial space on a 36,600 sq m plot with a 30-year tenure.

On completion, the project will have 80,609 sq m of lettable floor area in two blocks of six-storey, ramp-up high-specification space.

Costing $86 million, the development will be built in two phases and is scheduled for completion in Q3-Q4 next year.

Eighty per cent or 28,376 sq m of phase 1 space has been pre-committed and 40 per cent or 18,396 sq m of phase 2 is under offer.

A-Reit also said yesterday that it renewed and signed new leases, including expansions, for a total net lettable area of 71,433 sq m in the quarter ended Sept 30. The overall portfolio occupancy rate increased to 98.3 per cent as at that same date, from 97.2 per cent a year earlier.