Amazon To Rent Office Space At Upcoming IOI Central Boulevard Towers

SINGAPORE – Sources revealed that Amazon is in advanced negotiations to lease office space at the upcoming IOI Central Boulevard Towers, with most market watchers estimating that the e-commerce giant would rent about 350,000 sq ft, reported The Business Times on Friday morning (20 May, SGT).

At present, Amazon is occupying roughly 100,000 sq ft at Asia Square Tower 1, 80,000 sq ft at Capital Square and 45,000 sq ft at One George Street. It is also leasing workspace at WeWork’s outlet in Manulife Tower along Cross Street.

The new IOI Central Boulevard Towers is expected to obtain its Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) come Q3 2023. And if Amazon does agree to take up office space there, market observers think that the tech giant may partially consolidate some of its existing locations.

“For instance, they could come out of the relatively older buildings such as One George Street and possibly Capital Square but stay put in Asia Square, a newer building that Amazon moved into last year amid much fanfare,” said a veteran leasing agent, noting that Asia Square Tower 1 will be linked to IOI Central Boulevard Towers via a second-storey sheltered bridge.

Assuming Amazon occupies both office floors of 70,000 sq ft each at the new development’s podium and all nine office levels measuring 25,400 sq ft each in the East Tower, the overall amount of space is estimated to hit around 369,000 sq ft.

This would still leave some office space for at least another anchor tenant, as the new development’s West Tower will come with 40 office floors with a combined area of about 887,000 sq ft.

Situated adjacent to the Downtown MRT Station, IOI Central Boulevard Towers will feature around 1.26 million sq ft of office space and 30,000 sq ft of retail premises in terms of net lettable area (NLA).

Bursa Malaysia-listed IOI Properties is developing the project via its Singapore-incorporated subsidiary Wealthy Link, which secured the Central Boulevard site at a government land sale in late-2016 for S$2.57 billion or S$1,689 psf per plot ratio.

Moreover, some market watchers shared that Chinese tech firm ByteDance and Facebook’s parent company Meta are also considering to lease at IOI Central Boulevard Towers.

Several sources disclosed that Meta is also in advanced discussions to lease office space at IOI Central Boulevard Towers. Currently, it’s an anchor tenant at the nearby Marina One, where it is renting around 500,000 sq ft, in addition to 100,000 sq ft at South Beach Tower.

Meanwhile, ByteDance is presently leasing around 130,000 sq ft at One Raffles Quay’s (ORQ) South Tower, which will also have a second-storey sheltered bridge connecting to IOI Properties’ commercial project. The tech giant is also leasing some coworking space at The Executive Centre’s facility in ORQ’s North Tower and is occupying around 100,000 sq ft at Guoco Tower. ByteDance is also said to be in talks to lease more than 100,000 sq ft at Capital Tower. That office space was previously occupied by JP Morgan, which has transferred to CapitaSpring.

Based on market chatter is that while landlord IOI Properties may be seeking to charge monthly gross effective rents of around S$12 psf to S$14 psf on average for its new commercial property, it could offer discounted rates to the first or up to the second big-name anchor tenants.

“As has been the strategy for a lot of landlords of new office developments, clinching such ‘statement tenants’ will help serve as a catalyst for leasing activity in the project, giving an opportunity for IOI to ramp up rents for subsequent leases,” explained the veteran leasing agent.