Keppel Land to invest $3 bln in mixed-use development in Saigon CentreEn Bloc SalesWatchlist
Keppel plans to shift its focus to other brownfield redevelopment projects after completing Keppel South Central, according to Samuel Ng, the President of Keppel’s real estate division in Singapore. Keppel South Central is a former 27-storey office tower known as Keppel Towers and a 13-storey building called Keppel Towers 2. Located along Hoe Chiang Road in Tanjong Pagar, the newly completed 33-storey Keppel South Central comprises about 650,000 sq ft of office, retail, and event space. The typical office floor plates are between 20,000 and 22,000 sq ft with a clear ceiling height of 3.2m. According to Ng, almost 50% of the commercial tower’s office space and retail units are either leased or in active negotiations, with a leading financial services group secured as the first anchor tenant. The tower houses retail and event spaces on the ground floor, health and wellness spaces on the fifth and sixth floors, a landscaped terrace on the 18th floor, and end-of-trip facilities on Basement 1. To cater to the needs of modern tenants, the office space was adapted to accommodate after-hours operations. The designated floors have been installed with micro ACUs (air conditioning units) to provide localized cooling when needed, optimizing energy usage when select areas are occupied. Keppel collaborated with Keppel Land to test five new technologies at Keppel Bay Tower, a 19-year-old property, to improve its energy efficiency by 20%, making it Singapore’s first zero-energy commercial building in 2020. These green solutions were then implemented in Keppel South Central, bringing the development in line with the expectation of Grade-A office spaces. Keppel South Central is the first completed project under Keppel’s Sustainable Urban Renewal (SUR) strategy, and the company is now looking to replicate its success across the region. Nearly 87% of occupiers surveyed in the Asia Pacific region are looking to comprise their portfolio with entirely green-certified properties by 2030. With the limited new office supply expected in the region, this presents a significant opportunity for sustainability-focused retrofits. To fund the redevelopment of brownfield projects across the region, Keppel announced the first close of its flagship Keppel Sustainable Urban Renewal Fund (KSURF) in April, with total funds under management of over $2.3 billion. Keppel plans to apply its SUR technology to eight projects across five countries to create a dynamic portfolio for the fund. Keppel Land also intends to invest $3 billion in mixed-use development in Saigon Center. With its operational knowledge, Keppel believes it can streamline the process of selecting which new technologies to implement, thereby saving in capex cost if the projected savings are not produced.