Amex Signs Up For Marina Bay Financial Centre

Source : The Business Times, February 19, 2008

It is said to be taking 50,000 sq ft in Tower 2, in the project's 1st phase

AMERICAN Express International is the latest new tenant at Marina Bay Financial Centre (MBFC), which means that slightly more than half of the total 2.9 million square feet of offices in the entire development has been taken up.

BT understands it will take about 50,000 sq ft or two floors in the 50-storey Tower 2, which is under MBFC's first phase and slated for completion by early 2010. Amex will join British bank Barclays, Swiss private bank Pictet and UK-based stockbroking firm Icap as tenants in Tower 2.

Barclays is said to have agreed to lease about 100,000 sq ft or four floors in the tower, Icap is taking 35,000 sq ft and Pictet around 25,000 sq ft.

MBFC's Tower 2 will have nearly one million sq ft of net lettable area (NLA).

The 33-storey Tower 1, also in the development's first phase, has about 600,000 sq ft of NLA and is fully leased, mostly to Standard Chartered, which is taking 508,298 sq ft.

Smaller tenants in that tower include French corporate and investment bank Natixis, which is taking 65,000 sq ft, and Wellington International Management Co (21,000 sq ft).

DBS has leased about 700,000 sq ft in MBFC's Tower 3 - which will be in the project's second phase and slated for completion by early 2012.

Office leasing interest in Singapore since the start of the year does not seem to have been dented by sub-prime writedowns that have struck international banks. 'Most banks still see Asia as a bright spot and will continue to invest in Asia,' an executive with a major office landlord told BT.

CB Richard Ellis executive director (office services) Moray Armstrong, whose firm is the leasing agent for MBFC's office space, declined to be drawn into speculating about the latest tenants at MBFC, when contacted by BT.

However, he said, there is a 'healthy level of active leasing negotiations going on and further announcements are expected within the next three months'.

'Generally, too, leasing momentum in the Singapore office market has carried forward from 2007. There has been relatively minor impact arising out of the external sub-prime crisis. There's still plenty of activity and leasing negotiations in motion,' he said.

CBRE data show that Grade A office rents in Singapore rose 96.5 per cent last year to hit $17.15 psf a month.

'We expect a more modest rate of rental growth in the order of 15 to 20 per cent this year. Upside remains because of the severe shortage of available office space. But because rents have moved up so sharply, a more modest pace of growth is likely, combined with greater caution among occupiers, which is understandable. These twin factors will contribute to more moderate rental growth.'

American Express International Inc currently has operations at The Concourse while American Express Bank has operations at Hitachi Tower.