CapitaLand Investment Buys Minority Stake in ALP, Takes On $203M Singapore Shed Project

Singapore’s CapitaLand Investment has acquired a minority stake in Taiwan-based builder Ally Logistic Property, with the companies announcing plans to develop an automated warehouse in the city-state with an estimated project cost of S$260 million ($202.6 million).

Known as Omega 1 Singapore, the five-storey shed will stand at 19 Gul Lane in Jurong Industrial Estate and provide 71,000 square metres (764,238 square feet) of gross floor area upon completion in 2028. The facility will be fully leased to ALP under a long-term master lease with built-in rent escalation, the companies said Thursday in a release.

CapitaLand Investment is developing Omega 1 Singapore through the CapitaLand Southeast Asia Logistics Fund, a 2022-vintage vehicle invested by ALP, Thai developer Pruksa Holding and Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines. ALP’s automation expertise will help the asset management arm of Temasek-owned CapitaLand as it seeks to capture growth opportunities across Asia Pacific and the US, said Patricia Goh, head of logistics and self-storage at CapitaLand Investment.

“APAC remains the fastest-growing logistics region, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 15.2 percent between 2024 and 2030,” Goh said, citing Grandview Research figures. “Structural drivers such as the growth in digitally enabled consumption, ageing population, rising labour costs and supply chain rationalisation continue to fuel demand for modern, automated logistics solutions across the region.”

Robo-Facility to Rise

Located on a 5.1 hectare (12.6 acre) site acquired for an undisclosed amount, Omega 1 Singapore will feature robotics, an automated storage and retrieval system and automated guided vehicles to support end-to-end inventory management, with capacity to accommodate 60,000 pallet positions, according to the companies. 

The Singapore shed follows the fund’s development of Omega 1 Bang Na, a greenfield project near Bangkok announced in 2024 and expected to be Thailand’s biggest stand-alone warehouse campus with 2.47 million square feet (229,471 square metres) of gross floor area when finished. Phase 1 of the automated complex targets completion in mid-2026.

In September of last year the fund broke ground on a ready-built factory project in northern Vietnam’s Quang Ninh province, with that 40,628 square metre facility scheduled for completion in the first half of this year. 

CapitaLand Investment had first announced the CapitaLand Southeast Asia Logistics Fund in December 2022 with backing from ALP and Pruksa, with Mitsui OSK joining the vehicle two years later, at the same time that it took a stake in a CapitaLand India venture. 

CapitaLand Investment’s unspecified minority interest in ALP is to support the fund manager’s expansion into high-growth markets like Australia, Japan and the US, with ALP leveraging the Singapore firm’s global resources to accelerate its own growth.

“ALP’s end-to-end capabilities, covering real estate development, automation, as well as operations and maintenance, remain a key differentiator for us,” said ALP CEO Charlie Chang, who co-founded the firm with Joseph Tsai. “Through our Omega platform, we integrate artificial intelligence, advanced robotics and proprietary technology to deliver one-stop smart logistics solutions across the supply chain and reduce operational inefficiencies.”

Spaces Large and Small

CapitaLand Investment’s latest bet on sheds comes three months after the SGX-listed firm announced a S$100 million expansion of its Extra Space Asia self-storage business.

The spending will fund the development of Extra Space Asia’s first build-to-suit project in Singapore — a 185,000 square foot location in the Lion City’s Bedok area — and the acquisition of three facilities in Tokyo. The Singapore project marks the first industrial land sale by the government’s Jurong Town Corporation for self-storage use and will expand Extra Space’s Singapore portfolio to 13 properties with over 1.5 million square feet of gross floor area.

CapitaLand Investment teamed with Dutch pension fund manager APG in 2022 to commit an initial equity investment of S$570 million to Extra Space Asia, with an option to increase their investment up to S$1.14 billion (then $810 million). At that time the Singapore-based mini-storage platform owned, leased and operated more than 70 facilities spanning over 1 million square feet of space across six Asian nations.

Note: This article has been updated to clarify the co-founders of ALP and the details of CapitaLand Investment’s interest in Extra Space Asia.