Leading today’s news roundup, Singapore’s collective sale frenzy is kicking into high gear, with the owners of a massive condo development moving to offer the million-square-foot site for sale — and analysts say it could fetch over S$2 billion ($1.5 billion). Also in the headlines, a Chinese fundraising scheme hatched by the Kushner family’s US real estate company has reportedly ended with a whimper. There’s some southeast Asia news, with Singapore’s CapitaLand planning a facelift for some underperforming malls in Malaysia, and the Philippines government building a second administrative centre, just in case. Read on for all these developments and more.
Mandarin Gardens Mega-Site Joins Singapore’s En Bloc Wave
Home owners are taking Singapore’s latest collective sale craze to a new level, with mega developments – sitting on sites close to or over one million square feet each – jumping onto the bandwagon.
Owners of Mandarin Gardens, a 99-year condominium on a one million square foot plot off East Coast Park, have given the green light to kick-start its collective sale process. It formed its sales committee over the weekend, and the committee is contacting marketing agents. ZACD Group executive director Nicholas Mak estimates a redevelopment of Mandarin Gardens could yield almost 3,000 new housing units. Read more>>
Kushner Cos Said To Scrap Chinese Fundraising for US Project
The family real estate company once run by Jared Kushner is no longer seeking $150 million from Chinese investors for a New Jersey building project after months of criticism that the company was playing up its White House ties to raise the money.
A person familiar with the fundraising effort said this week that the company has stopped trying to raise money from wealthy Chinese to help pay for One Journal Square, a planned 66-story residential, retail and office complex in Jersey City, New Jersey, just across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Read more>>
CapitaLand Plans $20.5M Upgrade of Challenged Malaysia Malls
CapitaLand Malaysia Mall Trust (CMMT), which has announced a 4.7 percent drop in net property income (NPI) for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2017, warns that the operating environment remains challenging moving forward.
“As more shopping malls come on stream, particularly in the Klang Valley, in 2018 and growing competition from e-commerce, the operating environment remains challenging,” said the trust in its financial results announcement. To stay competitive, CMMT is spending about RM80 million ($20.5 million) to upgrade four of its malls this year, according to Low. Read more>>
New 46-Storey Taipei Skyscraper Unveiled
An ambitious new development project is officially underway for the Xinyi District of Taipei City. On January 23, city officials, and representatives from the Park Hyatt and Andaz groups and Riant Capital held a signing ceremony for the planned construction of the Taipei Sky Tower.
The new high rise project will include a department shopping center, as well as restaurants and a movie theater. The 46-storey Taipei Sky Tower is expected to be opened by late 2020. The design for the new development will also include a 300 meter long shopping strip connected to the structure that will likely contain outlet stores for designer brands. Read more>>
Philippines Breaks Ground on Government’s $2.4B Back-Up City
The Philippines has broken ground on a 200ha estate just north of Manila that will serve as the nation’s second government centre.
Costing 121.8 billion pesos ($2.4 billion), the National Government Administrative Centre, or NGAC, will serve as a back-up city for government operations. Officials say the centre will also help to better serve residents in the northern half of the main Luzon island. Read more>>
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