This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on July 15, 2019 - July 21, 2019
The youth division of the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (Rehda Youth) visited Singapore on June 20 and 21 to explore its latest property trends.
The 15 participants were from property developers based in Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Johor. The tour covered venues that included two co-working spaces operated by The Work Project; SPACE Furniture’s showroom; two luxury residential developments — the Concourse Skyline Penthouse (also known as the Robb Report Penthouse) and South Beach Residences — and
YOTEL Singapore, a hotel in Changi Airport.
Rehda Youth chairperson and Penang-based New Bob Group of Companies managing director Datuk Seri Dr Lee Ville says the tour was organised mainly to visit the co-working sites and the penthouse.
“I thought it would be a great time to look at co-working spaces because they have been around for a while. In Malaysia, co-working spaces have evolved,” says Lee, adding that the tour’s theme was redefining how people work and live.
It was a good opportunity for the participants to see how they can plan spaces and allocate more common areas for amenities when they design commercial projects, Lee explains. “By allocating [additional spaces], you bring a different value to a project.”
The penthouse, he says, is interesting as Robb Report collaborated with 30 partners to explore how they could market the product. Robb Report is a magazine brand under Indochine Media.
The main takeaway of the tour, Lee says, is the importance of collaborating with the right partners. “When you collaborate with many different parties, you can increase the value of the space. I think collaboration is the way forward.”
Here are the main highlights of the tour.
Redefining work space
On the first day, participants visited The Work Project’s co-working spaces in Capital Tower on Robinson Road and Asia Square Tower 2 at Marina View before heading to SPACE Furniture’s showroom in Bencoolen Street.
The Work Project was founded in 2016 in Hong Kong. “Since our inception, we have opened some award-winning work spaces by way of collaborating with some of the best designers and architects across the world. We are also among the top five operators in Singapore,” says its commercial director Adhiraj Thakur.
The operator currently manages five locations — about 140,000 sq ft of space in total — in Singapore. It collaborated with Australia-based HASSELL Studio to design some of the work spaces as well as SPACE Furniture, which is one of the furniture suppliers.
About eight months ago, CapitaLand Ltd, one of Asia’s largest diversified real estate groups, bought a 50% stake in the company. “This means that we will be working closely with CapitaLand to create offices of the future and transform office buildings,” Adhiraj explains.
“Work spaces have evolved over time and what will lead to the transformation of office buildings is amenitisation, which is the key trend for 2019. Recent reports suggest that the fine line between work spaces and amenities will be blurred when we enter 2020 and that is why forward-thinking landlords are looking to collaborate with operators like us,” says Adhiraj.
Amenitisation means setting up amenities such as food and beverage services and other conveniences, he explains.
One example is the business club, MARK, in Capital Tower that caters for members and the tower’s tenants. Designed by HASSELL Studio, MARK allows members to entertain people in an elegant and private area. A bar area serves alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks as well as food by Proof & Co.
HASSELL Studio director Paul Semple explains, “The most fascinating thing about these spaces is that it is a complete shift in terms of perception … of what an office and meeting space can be, and how you conduct work and conduct meetings. This space is designed to feel more like a lounge in a luxurious hotel or residence.”
The Work Project’s sales and marketing coordinator Emily Yong says it is trying to go beyond co-working and into the concept of work-meet-host within an office building. “It is all about amenitisation and not working in a silo.”
The Capital Tower’s 50,000 sq ft co-working space is simple, business-like and elegant, with a black-and white colour scheme.
However, the 41,000 sq ft co-working space in Asia Square is completely different, with a colourful scheme that offers a homey and relaxed atmosphere. The vertical gardens in the reception and lounge area by botanist Patrick Blanc adds to the colour palette.
According to Semple, the design is inspired by the building itself, which has lots of greenery and colour blocking. The office building was designed by Australian practice Denton Corker Marchall Pty Ltd, which is known for its strong and vigorous architecture philosophy.
“The space in Capital Tower is more universal, elegant and timeless. It has a black-and-white sophisticated palette. This space in Asia Square is very much referential to the building. It pays homage to the architect and the architecture. This palette is very mid-90s,” he explains.
Both work spaces offer several user options, including Day Pass (starting at S$45 per day), Part-time Hot Desk (starting at S$295 per month), Full-time Hot Desk (starting at S$395 per month) and Dedicated Desk and Private Office (starting at S$800 per month).
Luxury residences
The second day started with a tour of the Concourse Skyline Penthouse on Beach Road.
Indochine Media president Michael Von Schlippe explains that Sotheby’s — which is the agent of Concourse Skyline’s developer Hong Fok Land Ltd — approached Robb Report to help redesign the space. The penthouse in the 40-storey building has been on the market for four years.
Indochine Media is a media company that focuses on digital publishing, luxury print publishing and events. Its anchor brands include Robb Report, Luxury Guide, Buro. and Esquire.
The concept of a luxury magazine stepping in to help redesign an unsold unit was born in the 1990s in New York by Esquire, which redesigned a penthouse on the 92nd floor of Trump Tower. Esquire worked with its luxury advertisers to redesign the unit, which was initially priced at US$12 million but was eventually sold for US$70 million.
Taking this concept, Robb Report asked 30 of its luxury advertisers to come on board. “In order to make this project happen and create a win-win situation for the developer, the brands and ourselves, we spoke to the luxury advertisers that we usually work with,” says Von Schlippe.
One of the two objectives that Robb Report wanted to achieve was ask the luxury brands to participate without charging the developer. “Of course, not everyone agreed. So our plan was, if a payment had to be made, they [luxury brands] would defer it until the moment the property is sold. Then, the developer doesn’t have to take money out of his pocket but from the money he gets from the buyer,” Von Schlippe explains.
The other objective was to create buzz and excitement by bringing in luxury brands. “Imagine how many additional channels the developer will gain as the advertisers promote their participation in a project like this to their VIPs.”
Additionally, for marketing purposes, Robb Report and each of the luxury brands would get to conduct marketing and luxury lifestyle events at the penthouse for a minimum of four months after the renovations are completed. “This is so that we can invite the VIPs who are potential buyers to come and view this space without any pressure,” Von Schlippe adds.
The redesign of the three-floor, 11,000 sq ft penthouse was completed in April. It has a rooftop garden, pool deck and outdoor swimming pool. Brands such as Montblanc, Lladro, Delonghi Group, Leica and Sarment participated in the project.
One of the penthouse’s main selling points is the view of Singapore — including Changi Airport, Mount Faber, the central business district and Marina Bay Sands — and the ocean.
The penthouse will be sold fully furnished, including artworks worth nearly S$1.5 million. Initially priced at S$25 million, the luxury abode has a price tag of S$48 million.
After the tour of the penthouse, participants were taken to South Beach Residences, also located on Beach Road. The residence is part of a mixed-use development by City Developments Ltd and IOI Group.
The two towers sit on top of a retail podium. One tower comprises Grade-A office space while the other is a hotel (Levels 1 to 23) and residences (Levels 24 to 45).
South Beach Residences offers 190 units in four configurations — 2-bedroom, 3-bedroom, 4-bedroom and penthouse. Built-ups range from 936 to 6,577 sq ft and selling prices are from S$2,816 to S$3,500 psf.
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