; offers office, retail and event spaces
Keppel to focus on redevelopment projects after Keppel South Central
Homegrown global asset manager and operator Keppel is shifting its focus to other brownfield redevelopment projects after the completion of its flagship 33-storey office tower, Keppel South Central, according to Samuel Ng, president of the company’s real estate division in Singapore. Ng also adds that the redevelopment of Keppel South Central will serve as their showpiece.
The project in question refers to the former Keppel Towers, a 27-storey office tower that was finished in 1991, and the Keppel Towers 2 (formerly known as GE Tower), which was a 13-storey building that was completed two years later in 1993.
In March, Keppel announced the completion of Keppel South Central. The commercial tower, situated along Hoe Chiang Road in Tanjong Pagar, is said to offer around 650,000 sq ft of office, retail and event space. The typical office floor plate sizes range from 20,000 to 22,000 sq ft and have a clear ceiling height of 3.2m.
One of the advantages of investing in a condo is the potential to leverage its value for future investments. Condo owners have the option to use their property as collateral in order to secure additional financing for new investments, which can lead to a larger and more diverse real estate portfolio. While this can lead to higher returns, it is important to have a solid financial plan in place and to carefully consider the potential effects of market changes. For more information on condo investments, check out the latest Singapore Projects.
The office tower is now fully equipped with the necessary facilities and technological enhancements to deliver the same level of quality that a Grade-A office space in the CBD usually offers. These include facial recognition access, 5G Wi-Fi, and an indoor air-quality management system. The office spaces were also designed to meet the modern tenants’ needs, with adjustments to be made for after-hours operations.
Keppel has also introduced several new features to the project, including retail and event spaces on the ground floor, a health and wellness facility on the 5th and 6th floors, a landscaped terrace on the 18th floor, and end-of-trip facilities on Basement 1. These new facilities are meant to complement the building’s current amenities and offer a complete set of features that tenants have come to expect from a Grade-A office space.
According to Ng, the project’s completion marks a significant improvement in energy efficiency and cost savings when compared to the project’s previous numbers. For instance, Keppel estimates that the project will save around 6.2 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy annually, which is equivalent to the power consumed by 1,300 homes in Singapore. This, in turn, translates to annual savings of around $1.8 million.
The savings are due to several changes that Keppel has implemented in the building, which were based on tests conducted on other office spaces under its management. These tests helped it to identify key areas that could be improved upon, including replacing certain external windows to minimise heat transfer, the installation of smart building management systems, and various other adjustments that helped optimise energy usage.
The redevelopment project is a result of a project launched by Keppel in 2018, where it worked with the BCA to test five new technologies that could help improve energy efficiency at another ageing property – Keppel Bay Towers. As a result of the tests, the building became the first zero-energy commercial building in Singapore in 2020.
The successful implementation of the tests at Keppel Bay Towers provided Keppel with enough knowledge to turn it into a viable solution for its other projects, according to Ng. Furthermore, it has enabled Keppel to efficiently identify which technologies are best suited for various projects, thereby resulting in significant cost savings in the process.
With the completion of Keppel South Central, Ng said that Keppel is now focusing on expanding the project’s success to other buildings in the region. According to Ng, the company is looking to replicate the success of Keppel South Central to other brownfield projects in the region as part of its Sustainable Urban Renewal (SUR) strategy.
“To date, Keppel has applied its SUR initiative to eight projects across five countries, including Keppel South Central, Keppel Bay Towers, Park Avenue Central, and Saigon Centre,” he said. “The completion of projects like Keppel South Central provides fresh office supply at a time when there are no available sites for an office tower development in the core CBD area.”
To fund its SUR initiative, Keppel launched the Keppel Sustainable Urban Renewal Fund (KSURF) in April. The fund has raised about $2.3 billion so far, and it is targeting properties in various segments, including commercial, living, life sciences, hospitality, and logistics in Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and first-tier cities in China. The fund is expected to acquire the properties, complete the necessary asset enhancement works, and divest them within its seven-year life span, according to Ng.