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     Shipping firms flock to HarbourFront
    Office Park
 NYK Line, P&O Nedlloyd, and Mitsui OSK Lines are among
    those attracted by the proximity to port terminals
 The HarbourFront Office Park, consisting
    of three towers, is fast becoming a hub for shipping companies, given its
    proximity to four port terminals. The latest shipping company to head there
    will be NYK Line, which recently signed a lease for 60,000 sq ft at
    HarbourFront Tower One, sources told BT. The deal is said to boost occupancy
    for the 375,000 sq ft building to about 90 per cent. Only the top floor of the 18-storey tower and some
    space on the third floor are still available for lease. Other shipping lines that have relocated to the
    park over the past year or so include P&O Nedlloyd, and Mitsui OSK
    Lines. Both are in HarbourFront Tower Two (the refurbished former Cable Car
    Tower). The 150,000 sq ft building is said to be 35-40 per cent let. Both
    blocks are majority owned by Mapletree Investments, a fully owned unit of
    Temasek Holdings. The third building in the HarbourFront Office park
    is KeppelBay Tower, which is majority owned by Keppel Group. About 60 per
    cent of its 395,000 sq ft total net lettable area is occupied. Keppel Corp
    itself has taken up two floors while other tenants include Canon Singapore
    and BMW. HarbourFront Tower One and Keppel Bay Tower, both
    18 storeys high, were completed in late 2002 while the HarbourFront TowerTwo
    was completed in Q1 2003. Singapore is reeling from an office glut that has
    seen 17.9 per cent of total office space on the island sitting idle at the
    end of last year, according to official data. According to Jones Lang
    LaSalle figures, average islandwide office rents fell 18.5 per cent last
    year. The space which NYK Line will occupy at
    HarbourFront Tower One is understood to be spread over the building's 13th
    to 16th levels. NYK and its related companies are moving their operations
    from several existing offices on the island, including Gateway at Beach Road
    and Suntec City, to the new location. The shipping line's lease with Mapletree is for
    five years and the gross monthly rental rate is said to be 'at least $3
    psf'. Other major tenants in the building include Exxon
    Mobil (occupying about half the tower), Dupont, Power Seraya and the
    backroom operations of UBS Warburg.  - By
    Kalpana Rashawala    Singapore
    Business Times  
    20 March 2004    
 Keppel Bay Tower (right) and
    HarbourFront Tower One (left), with Cable Car Towers, which is being
    refurbished, in the middle
     The recently-completed Keppel Bay Tower
    near the World Trade Centre could well be the new headquarters for the Land
    Transport Authority (LTA), say sources. LTA, which was in the limelight a few
    months ago when it had to shelve its plans to build its own HQ near Buona
    Vista MRT Station following adverse public reaction, is said to be currently
    in talks to possibly lease the entire 18-storey Keppel Bay Tower. The
    property, located near the new HarbourFront MRT station, has nearly 400,000
    sq ft of net lettable area. Keppel Bay Tower is substantially owned
    by the Keppel Group including Keppel Land, and is part of the HarbourFront
    Office Park development. On LTA's interest in Keppel Bay Tower, an
    LTA spokeswoman said: 'We are in talks with several developers including
    Keppel Land to explore the possibility of leasing space for the LTA office.
    We are still evaluating our options, including the option of continuing to
    operate from our current locations. Thus, we have not made any decision or
    plan in this regard.' LTA's 3,700 staff currently operate out
    of seven locations on the island - Hampshire Road (former Kandang Kerbau
    Hospital), Albert Complex, MND Complex, North Bridge Road, Sin Ming Drive,
    PSA Building and Rex House (formerly known as Thong Nam Building). LTA made the headlines in August when it
    shelved plans to build a new HQ that could have cost up to $500 million,
    soon after the plans were revealed. There was much adverse public reaction to
    the proposal, which would have centralised the government agency's
    operations under one roof. Some questioned the need for another
    grand building for a government body while others asked what need there was
    for LTA to become a major landlord, worsening the existing office glut in
    the process. The proposed building was to have 1.29 million sq ft built-up
    space, or twice LTA's requirements. LTA had intended to rent out more than
    half the space in the proposed HQ at Buona Vista. Some observers suggested
    that instead of developing a new building, LTA should lease an existing
    building if it wanted to centralize its operations and thus help alleviate
    the oversupply of offices on the island. The former HDB headquarters in Bukit
    Merah and the World Trade Centre are among the properties LTA is said to
    have looked at as alternative locations for its HQ. The HarbourFront Office Park also
    includes another 18-storey building - HarbourFront Tower One, which, like
    Keppel Bay Tower, received its Temporary Occupation Permit last month - and
    the Cable Car Towers which is being refurbished. These two buildings are
    majority owned by The HarbourFront Pte Ltd, an 80:20 joint venture between
    Mapletree Investments and PSA Corp. Mapletree Investments' HarbourFront Tower
    One, with about 375,000 sq ft net lettable area, is substantially leased
    with tenants like Exxon Mobil, DuPont and UBS Warburg. -
    by Kalpana Rashiwala    
    Singapore
    Business Times    15 Dec 2002   
      
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