JLL Moving Hong Kong Office to Swire’s One Taikoo Place in Quarry Bay

JLL, the world’s second largest property consultancy by revenue, announced on Thursday that it would pack up its office in the city’s traditional business centre of Admiralty and move to One Taikoo Place in Quarry Bay next year.

The Chicago-based company’s decision to move to the 35,000 square feet new office in Swire Properties newest office tower on eastern Hong Kong island, makes it the first major global property brokerage to shift away from the city’s traditional business hub, as multinationals continue to spread beyond the greater Central area.

The decision to move into One Taikoo Place will put JLL in the same tower as Facebook and Baker McKenzie when it consolidates its staff from its current locations in Three Pacific Place in Admiralty and Tesbury Centre in Wanchai, when it moves to the 48-storey office tower near the beginning of 2019.

Consolidating the Team in Eastern

The American broker said that it is moving to its new two floor space mainly due to its need for extra office space to accommodate the staff required to serve property investors, developers and occupiers in Asia’s most prosperous city. “As we expand further our customer base, enhance our product and service portfolio and grow our business, a larger space overall is much needed to support our growth,” Joseph Tsang, managing director of JLL in Hong Kong said in a statement.

The company is also likely to be saving a bit on rent in its new home, while moving into a newer facility. Office rents at JLL’s current home in Three Pacific Place, a 2004 vintage Swire project, averaged HK$130 per square foot to HK$155 per square foot per month at the end of the second quarter. Asking rental rates at One Taikoo Place are currently HK$60 per square foot per month according to JLL’s website.

The 61 percent difference in rental rate could save the brokerage approximately HK$3,325,000 ($425,850) per month for moving six metro stations away from its Admiralty location.

Just last week offshore incorporation firm Maples and Calder was revealed as giving up its pricey office in The Center on Queen’s Road in Central for a new 25,000 square foot home in Wanchai’s Central Plaza in a move that could save the firm more than HK$2 million per month.

Swire Filling New Prime Tower

“We continue to see sustained demand from a variety of sectors, particularly professional services, which is an endorsement of Taikoo Place both in terms of the specification of the buildings and also as a convenient location with all the amenities required to support a premier commercial hub,” Don Taylor, director of Swire Properties office division told Mingtiandi.

Swire’s development of the one million square foot project, which is to be followed by Two Taikoo Place in 2021,a allows the company to take advantage of a growing interest among international companies for alternative business locations as Hong Kong office rents continue to lead the world.

Late last year Facebook was revealed as having pre-leased around 100,000 square feet in One Taikoo Place, with law firm Baker McKenzie leasing the same amount of space shortly thereafter in its own five-floor lease.

Financial services giant Prudential, Richard Li’s FWD Insurance and investment management firm AllianceBernstein have also signed up for space in the tower, which will join eight other office towers in the Taikoo Place campus in Quarry Bay when it is completed later this year.