Homegrown insurance bigwigs Great Eastern and NTUC Income have leased office space at Paya Lebar Quarter (PLQ).
According to Business Times, Great Eastern – a listed subsidiary of OCBC, has leased about 125,000 sq ft on four floors of the 13-storey Tower 3 in the project.
This is the same tower where SMRT has leased 97,000 sq ft (three levels) and property consulting group CBRE, 31,000 sq ft (one floor).
Paya Lebar Quarter has two other office towers, both 14-storeys high. According to market talk, NTUC Income has leased 55,000 sq ft, or two levels of Tower 2.
There is also talk that multinational IWG is in advanced discussions to lease about 52,000 sq ft in Tower 1 for its lifestyle co-working concept, Spaces.
The integrated mixed-use project is next to Paya Lebar MRT station, which sits on the East-West Line and Circle Line. The office component, expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year, comprises more than 800,000 sq ft net lettable area of Grade A-specification space.
PLQ will also have a standalone mall with 340,000 sq ft of retail space and a 429-unit residential component, Park Place Residences at PLQ, housed in three blocks. The project is being developed by Lendlease and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Market talk is that Great Eastern will be using the space it has leased at PLQ for its agency business and is expected to relocate out of its premises at 200 Changi Road.
“Most likely, the space they are taking at PLQ will be for a combination of relocation as well as some expansion,” said a market watcher.
Great Eastern’s agency business is also located at Great Eastern House at 49 Beach Road and at Westgate Tower in Jurong East. The group also operates out of Great Eastern Centre in Pickering Street, where it has its headquarters and some agency business.
In January, during the topping out ceremony for PLQ’s Tower 3, Lendlease announced that more than half of the development’s office space had been either leased or was under final offer or in advanced negotiations.
At the event, Lendlease officials had said then that the average monthly office leasing rent was S$7-8 per square foot.
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