Singapore – Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd (“Mapletree”) today celebrated the topping-out of Mapletree Business City by welcoming its four future tenants – HSBC, Unilever, SAP and American Express in a symbolic signing ceremony. The four companies, together with several amenities tenants, have committed close to 40% of the total 1.73 million sq ft net lettable space in Mapletree Business City. Mapletree is also in advanced negotiations for a further 15% space, which it expects to close soon.
The topping-out of Mapletree Business City was officiated by Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for Transport.
Mr Edmund Cheng, Chairman of Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd said, “We are pleased to welcome our future tenants, HSBC, Unilever, SAP and Amex to Mapletree Business City. With its location just 10 minutes from the CBD and five minutes from the exciting HarbourFront/Sentosa hub, Mapletree Business City has the potential to become the next emerging business district in Singapore.”
A modern and integrated business hub located along Alexandra Road, Mapletree Business City will feature a first class office and business park with Grade A specifications that are among the best in Singapore, comprehensive amenities and excellent transport connections at costs that are lower than the CBD. These attributes are important to companies looking to consolidate their operations and manage their costs by using a combination of office and business space in one single, convenient location.
Mr Cheng added, “Our success in securing pre-leasing with major tenants at Mapletree Business City is due in part to our ability to create vibrant hubs for work, live and play by providing a comprehensive range of modern conveniences and amenities that give a balanced work environment for our users. It is also due in part to our partnership approach that we have adopted, such as signing longer leases of six to 10 years, which gives our tenants a reasonable time frame to amortise their set-up or relocation costs, while providing rental certainty against the vagaries of the market. We also allow our tenants the flexibility of scaling up their space requirements by taking up additional space within the same stack of space in the buildings.“
When completed in the second quarter of 2010, Mapletree Business City will house the regional headquarters of Unilever and SAP. It will also house the back-room processing centre for HSBC and will be one of Amex’s regional processing centres.
