Lendlease's S$3.7 billion mixed-used Paya Lebar Quarter officially launched

Lendlease's S$3.7 billion mixed-used Paya Lebar Quarter officially launched

Four-hectare development comprises retail, office and residential components

Fri, Oct 25, 2019

KOH JIA RONG


PAYA Lebar Quarter (PLQ), a mixed-used project developed by Lendlease, was officially launched on Thursday.

The opening ceremony was graced by guest of honour Lawrence Wong, Minister for National Development and Second Minister for Finance, and Bruce Gosper, the Australian High Commissioner to Singapore.

"All in all, it's a tremendous opportunity for us to re-imagine and remake Paya Lebar for the future, even for the next century," said Mr Wong at the event.

Mr Wong spoke further on the eventual relocation of Paya Lebar Airbase from 2030 onwards, saying that the resultant 800 ha of land would have a redevelopment footprint of 2.5 times the size of Bishan Town.

Through the Business Improvement District (BID) programme, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) will redevelop Paya Lebar as an up and coming commercial hub. This is part of a decentralisation strategy to ensure Singapore's continued growth.

Praising the proximity of PLQ to the airport and the central business district, as well as the mix of residential and office space, Mr Gosper said: "This project is a great example of what the Singapore government has been doing with its urban planning and infrastructure development. There are lessons there for all of us in that."

The end development value of the entire precinct is estimated at S$3.7 billion. Lendlease holds a 30 per cent stake in PLQ, with the remaining 70 per cent owned by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). ADIA is the sovereign wealth fund owned by the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

The four-hectare mixed-development comprises retail, office and residential components which are branded as PLQ Mall, PLQ Workplace and Park Place Residences, respectively.

The total gross floor area of PLQ is 1.8 million square feet (sq ft). PLQ Mall covers about 340,000 sq ft, while PLQ Workplace takes up 900,000 sq ft. Park Place Residences offers 429 condominium units, across three residential towers. Public amenities such as green spaces and walking paths take up an additional 100,000 sq ft.

PLQ Mall soft launched on Aug 30 this year, and boasts some 200 shops spread across six floors, with anchor tenants such as FairPrice Finest, KopiTime (a food court operated by the Kopitiam Group), a Virgin Active gym and a Shaw Theatres. Lendlease cites Cistri for a projected annual footfall of almost 45 million for the PLQ.

Three Grade A office towers make up PLQ Workplace, with PLQ 1 and 2 offering regular 24,000 to 32,000 sq ft floor plates as office spaces. PLQ 3 is designed with a flexible workplace concept - csuites - which caters to enterprises that value coworking spaces and employ smaller teams. csuites is set to welcome German multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company Bayer later this year.

The office tenants boast a host of 18 multinational corporations and leading Singapore organisations, including newly moved-in UOB, Sabre Asia Pacific, Obayashi Singapore, Tokyo Electron Singapore. It is also home to SMRT's headquarters. Operations commenced in March earlier this year.

A total of 90 per cent of available office and retail spaces have been leased or are under final negotiations, with 80 per cent of tenants having already commenced operations.

For the residential component, Park Place Residences offers 99-year leasehold condo apartments with one to three-bedroom configurations. The units are expected to be completed by the first half of 2020.

All but one of the 429 units have been sold, in a two-part staggered sales approach. Phase 1 sales, comprising half of the available 429 units, sold out within the day at an average price of S$1,805 per sq ft (psf), with Phase 2 following at S$1,938 psf.

DP Architects oversaw the architectural works for the entire PLQ development, putting under its belt a host of other prestigious projects such as the Esplanade and Our Tampines Hub.

The architectural firm was also behind the design of the iconic Golden Mile Complex.