Rajah and Tann set 'to shift to Marina One by 2020'

Tue, Jan 30, 2018

Neo Shi Wei


MAJOR law firm Rajah and Tann, the anchor tenant of Straits Trading Building, will move to the newly completed Marina One come 2020, BT has learnt.

This move comes against a backdrop of increasing relocations, where more companies are moving to newer developments in the Central Business District (CBD) area.

One industry source told The Business Times that Rajah and Tann will occupy 80,000 to 90,000 square feet at Marina One, marginally smaller than the current area the homegrown law firm is taking up in its existing location in Raffles Place.

It is also believed that the firm will take two to three floors at Marina One, down from the 11 floors at the Straits Trading Building now.

The Business Times understands that the reduction is likely not due to a cut in operations or staff size.

A typical floor plate at Marina One ranges from 34,000 to 40,000 sq ft. A similar floor plate at Straits Trading Building is about 8,000 sq ft.

Jennifer Chia, partner and head of corporate real estate, TSMP, said: "In the case of law firms moving offices which are currently spread over smaller floor plates to buildings with larger floor plates, this could be to yield a more efficient office layout."

She added that law firms in general could be moving towards a hot-desking model, allowing them to take up less space.

Several financial institutions, multi-national corporations and consultancies are also moving or have moved to Marina One.

Confirmed tenants include Swiss private bank Julius Baer, consultancy PwC Singapore, co-working space provider JustCo, financial services provider Prudential, ride-hailing platform Grab, agri-business Olam International, oil major BP Global and financial institutions Daiwa Capital and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

When contacted, Rajah and Tann declined to comment, but an advertisement published earlier this month in BT revealed that Rajah and Tann Asia is one of the tenants at the M+S development.

M+S - a joint venture between Malaysia's Khazanah Nasional and Singapore's Temasek Holdings - declined to comment on the move.

Rajah and Tann has been a tenant at the redeveloped Straits Trading Building since its completion in 2009.

The building has changed hands a few times, most recently in 2016 when Indonesian tycoon and philanthropist Dr Tahir purchased the building for S$560 million from Sun Venture Group.

According to media reports at that time, it set the record for the highest per square foot price (S$3,520 psf) for an entire office building in Singapore.