CapitaLand plans 6th China Raffles City project in Shenzhen
Completion of the mixed development expected in phases from 2014
By KALPANA RASHIWALA
CAPITALAND continues to expand its Raffles City footprint in China. It yesterday announced plans for building a mixed development under this franchise in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, making it the group's sixth Raffles City project in China and eighth internationally.
The property giant has a Raffles City property each in Singapore and Bahrain.
CapitaLand will build Raffles City Shenzhen - comprising a Grade A office tower, a mall and a hotel or serviced residence component - on a 578,291 sq ft site at the junction of Nan Hai Avenue and Chuang Ye Road, within the Nanshan commercial district of Shenzhen. The 50-year leasehold plot was acquired in 2008.
In its announcement yesterday, CapitaLand said it will also develop on this same site for strata sale an office tower, residential apartments, small office home office (SoHo) units and shop space. The entire project - comprising Raffles City Shenzhen and the strata-sale component - will have about 2.56 million sq ft gross floor area (GFA) and involve project development cost (inclusive of land and construction cost) of about six billion yuan (S$1.25 billion). Planning and development works for the entire project are underway and the project is slated for completion in phases from 2014.
The Raffles City portion, which is being designed by international architectural and design firm Benoy, will have GFA of about 1.37 million sq ft and the strata-sale portion, about 1.2 million sq ft.
CapitaLand is the major shareholder and lead development manager with a 58.3 per cent stake in the entire project. The remaining stake is held by other parties unrelated to CapitaLand.
Market watchers expect CapitaLand to later pump Raffles City Shenzhen into its Raffles City China Fund, which currently holds the five other Raffles City projects in China - in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Ningbo. Last month, CapitaLand announced the fund has raised an additional US$180 million in committed capital, taking the fund's capital to US$1.18 billion. It also said that future closings could further boost the fund size to US$1.5 billion. At the same time, CapitaLand announced the injection of Raffles City Ningbo into the fund. This development is slated for completion by 2012. CapitaLand effectively owns 45.6 per cent of the fund.
'Our businesses in China continue to do well,' noted Liew Mun Leong, president and CEO of CapitaLand Group in yesterday's release. In Beijing, the group released over 40 residential units at its 313-unit La Capitale condo in Dongcheng District in the middle of last month and to date, half have been sold at an average price of 40,000 yuan per square metre.
CapitaMalls Asia is slated to open another five shopping malls across China this year, in addition to Anyang Mall in Henan, which opened in Q1 this year.
'Ascott, CapitaLand's serviced residence business unit, has opened three properties in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu this year and another four properties with over 1,000 units will open in 2010,' Mr Liew added.
CapitaLand China Holdings CEO Jason Leow noted that Shenzhen is China's fourth largest city in terms of economic output after Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.
Copyright © 2010 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.
Raffles City Shenzhen: It will have a Grade A office tower, a mall and a hotel or serviced residence
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