Celanese Leases 7,300 Sq Ft Office At Hub Synergy Point
SINGAPORE – Celanese has inked a deal last month to lease 7,300 sq ft sq ft of office space at the Hub Synergy Point, a 27-storey office tower at the intersection of Enggor Street and Anson Road that obtained its Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) in August 2022, reported The Business Times on Monday morning (17 October, SGT).
The global chemical and speciality materials group represents the first office tenant at Hub Synergy Point, and the commercial space it has committed to occupy is located about the 20th floor.
At present, the American group is leasing office space on level 13 of the adjacent Mapletree Anson.
Hub Synergy Point was developed by Ho Kian Cheong, a 72-year-old member of the Ho family, the clan that controls Keck Seng Group. Interestingly, the developer only started leasing after the office building received its TOP.
“We had plans to pre-lease the new project, but unfortunately, we were hit by the full force of the COVID-19 restrictions,” said Sydney Ho, the oldest son of Ho Kian Cheong and a Director at Hub Synergy (S) Pte Limited, the elder Ho’s fully-owned vehicle that holds Hub Synergy Point.
“With intermittent work stoppages and other compliance requirements, we had no clear sight of exactly when the project would be ready for occupation, so we decided to hold back marketing of the property,” he elucidated.
Previously, Ho Kian Cheong acquired the 3 uppermost levels of the building and gained total ownership of the commercial property in 2015 before it was redeveloped. He invested around S$70 million, inclusive of real estate tax and professional fees, to redevelop the asset.
The former building on the site was constructed in 1973 by Chinese-Indonesian trader Tong Djoe. He later sold the property but kept the top 2 floors for his own use. The majority of the office tower changed hands several times over the decades. It was once owned by the bankrupt Carrian Group. In the 1980s, Yamasin acquired the property. The Japanese developer upgraded the asset and renamed it as Apex Tower before divesting it to a Salim Group-controlled entity. Then, in the mid-1990s, Salim Group’s KMP disposed the office tower to the Ho family.
Hub Synergy (S) Pte Limited targets a gross effective rent of S$9 to S$11 psf per month for the commercial property’s 118,000 sq ft net lettable area (NLA) of office space. However, the tower’s overall gross floor area (GFA) of 157,940 sq ft is merely 3.3 percent higher than the former building’s GFA.
Of the 27 floors, only 19 contain office space, and these come in 2 floor-plate sizes – around 3,900 sq ft on the 7th to 12th floor, and 7,300 sq ft on levels 13 to 25.
“We decided to keep to a maximum of just two units per office floor. Ours is a boutique office project catering to SMEs as well as MNCs with small regional offices. If these occupiers were to go to a typical CBD Grade A office building with larger floor plates of 20,000 sq ft or more, they would have to share the floor with many co-tenants,” Sydney explained.
Apart from being close to the Tanjong Pagar MRT Station, the Hub Synergy Point is also within proximity to the upcoming Prince Edward MRT Station.
