This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 20, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: Crest Builder Holdings Bhd will be launching its RM1.1 billion gross development value (GDV) transit-oriented development, Latitud8, by the last quarter of 2016.

Its managing director Eric Yong said preliminary construction works for the project had already commenced last month.

“The preliminary construction works for the development already commenced last month. We are looking to get works in full swing by the end of the year. The project will begin contributing from next year onwards.

“We are targeting to launch in the last quarter of 2016, depending on market conditions. We are expecting the market to pick up by the end of the year,” said Yong at a press conference held in conjunction with the project’s ground breaking ceremony yesterday.

He added the group aims to sell 50% of the 420 residential units within the first six months of launching, at a 50:50 ratio between locals and foreigners.

The 2.72-acre (1.1ha) mixed-development project will be jointly developed by Intan Sekitar Sdn Bhd, a 51%-owned unit of Crest Builder, and Syarikat Negara Bhd (Prasarana). Prasarana will be entitled to 21.2% share of the project’s GDV, which includes six floors out of the office portion.

Yong said the group is currently in the process of securing investors for the office units and the retail portion of the development, after it called off a previously planned private placement exercise due to unfavourable market conditions.

“We are still talking to quite a few. I can’t reveal too much, but ultimately we are looking at selling the mall or the balance of the office space. We are looking at selling equity in the retail mall, a big chunk of it.

“We are looking at owning only about 20% to 30% of the mall, which itself is worth about RM160 million to RM180 million. While Crest Builder is a boutique developer, our bread and butter is still construction, so we don’t see the point of owning the mall entirely,” he said.

For the financial year ending Dec 31, 2016 (FY16), Yong expects Crest Builder to register better performance year-on-year, driven by the balance of sales from its projects in Shah Alam, the launch of Latitud8 and its existing construction works.

“We won’t see a big jump in our numbers for this year, but they will be better than last year,” he said.