KPMG Transferring To Asia Square Tower 2, ByteDance Looking To Occupy Capital Tower
SINGAPORE – Office buildings such as CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust’s (CICT) Asia Square Tower 2 and Capital Tower are seeing brisk demand, amidst the flight to quality office space by major tech firms, reported The Business Times on Thursday morning (14 April, SGT).
For instance, sources revealed that KPMG has agreed to lease workspace in Asia Square Tower 2 earlier this year. Notably, the professional services company will be transferring from Hong Leong Building in Raffles Quay, where it has stayed as a tenant for over 40 years.
KPMG has signed a deal to occupy four floors in Asia Square Tower 2. It will be moving into office space formerly leased by Allianz and currently occupied by Swiss Re. Allianz has relocated to 79 Robinson Road, while Swiss Re plans to transfer to Guoco Midtown, which is presently at an advanced stage of construction.
Meanwhile, Chinese tech giant ByteDance is in talks to potentially lease between 120,000 sq ft and 130,000 sq ft at Capital Tower. The space was previously leased by JP Morgan, which has transferred to CapitaSpring, which is partly owned by CICT.
At present, ByteDance is said to be planning to lease around 130,000 sq ft at One Raffles Quay’s (ORQ) South Tower, on top of securing some workspace from coworking space operator The Executive Centre in ORQ’s North Tower. Market observers believe the tech giant’s future phases of expansion may include taking further space at ORQ.
Meanwhile, at the 45-storey Hong Leong Building, KPMG currently leases about 160,000 sq ft of office space, but the workspace is fragmented with staggered lease expiries towards the end of 2022 and at various points next year.
Market watchers expect KPMG to start operating at Asia Square Tower 2 in Marina View by early-2023. The significantly bigger floor plates throughout Asia Square Tower 2 compared with Hong Leong Building will enable the professional services firm to make more efficient use of the office space across its different business lines.
Having a clean slate at Asia Square will enable KPMG to implement new hybrid work initiatives. Conversely, the high occupancy at Hong Leong Building has prevented KPMG from expanding its footprint.
Moreover, the owner of Hong Leong Building, Hong Leong Holdings, is said to have launched an expression of interest (EOI) exercise to onboard a coworking space provider to take up to 60,000 sq ft of workspace on 3 floors. This is part of the office space that KPMG will be relinquishing.
