Published September 24, 2009

Mapletree in talks to lease more space

Business park has leased 40% of space to major firms

By FELDA CHAY

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MAPLETREE Investments Pte Ltd said yesterday that it is in advanced negotiations to pre-lease another 15 per cent of space at its Mapletree Business City.

Mapletree Business City: The park will have environmentally friendly features like full, double-glazed curtain walls for all its buildings to reduce the heat load

This follows the 40 per cent of its space that has already been pre-leased to tenants such as HSBC, Amex, Unilever and German software major SAP ahead of the business park's expected completion next year

At the topping-out ceremony of the business city yesterday, the fully-owned unit of Temasek Holdings said that it expects to close the deals to pre-lease the 15 per cent of space soon. It declined to provide additional details on the negotiations.

Mapletree Investment's chairman Edmund Chen said that the company's ability to secure pre-leasing with major tenants such as HSBC is due in part to approaches such as the signing of longer leases of six to 10 years.

This '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', said Mr Chen.

'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 2010, the park - which will have a total lettable area of 1.73 million sq ft - will be linked to the company's two other properties, The Comtech and PSA Building. It will also boast facilities such as a gym, a Wi-Fi enabled alfresco dining area and a heated lap pool.

The business park will also have environmentally friendly features like full, double-glazed curtain walls for all its buildings to reduce the heat load.