While foreign investors have postponed carrying out realty projects because the global economic downturn, local counterparts have boosted work on big projects in HCMC, a property management and consulting company said.
Marc Townsend, managing director of CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) Vietnam,
said at a press meeting in HCMC yesterday with the theme of "Fearless
Forecasts" that some local investors were developing major property
projects, including office buildings in downtown HCMC despite the
economic crisis.
The reshaping of the city's central business
area includes the Financial Tower, M&C, SJC, A&B Tower, and
Times Square projects. They are being developed by local investors, he
said.
Other big projects on the way are Saigon Centre, Thu
Thiem, Gemadepts and VFC, which are all slated to be up and running
this year.
Binh Minh Import-Export Production and Trade
(Bitexco) is developing the 68-story Financial Tower office building at
a 5,400-square-meter prime site surrounded by Hai Trieu, Ho Tung Mau
and Ngo Duc Ke streets in District 1. The 270-meter-tall skyscraper
will have total floor space of more than 100,000 square meters, with
the first four levels for a commercial center and the rest for offices
of local and foreign banks, financial firms and insurers, among others.
Kinh
Do Corporation, the country's leading confectioner, and two other local
companies are developing a high-rise building in the city's downtown at
the premises of the International Trade Center, which was hit by an
inferno in October 2002.
The US$137-million SJC Tower project
will feature apartments, offices and department store. Saigon Jewelry
Holding Company (SJC) earlier planned to get the project rolling in
2005 but the time-consuming administrative procedures have caused the
delay. The project has 45 stories and six basements and is surrounded
by Le Thanh Ton, Nguyen Trung Truc, Nam Ky Khoi Nghia and Le Loi
streets, also in District 1.
This project promises high profit
because it is located right in the center of the city downtown and
construction will be finished in four years, according to investors.
Petro
Capital and Infrastructure Investment Joint Stock Co. (Petro-land) is
developing a 30-story office, apartment and commercial building in
HCMC's District 7. The affiliate of Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group
(PetroVietnam) will spend VND1 trillion (US$66 million) on the Phu My
Hung Petro Commercial and Financial Center covering 3,000 square meters
in Phu My Hung new urban area.
The building with three basements
will have total floor space of over 57,000 square meters, including
35,000 square meters for offices and commercial areas and 68 hi-end
apartments measuring 100 to 272 square meters each. Explaining why
these companies were still pressing on with their projects, experts
said office demand would rise strongly in the future given a surge in
foreign direct investment (FDI). So the developers are expecting
investors to come.
Townsend said office buildings of all grades
in HCMC saw a decline in rent rates in the fourth quarter last year. He
forecast a continued fall this year due to the economic woes.
Tenants
are cutting back their capital expenditures and headcount and there are
fewer new entrants to Vietnam. However, demand for retail spaces is
projected to run high in the months to come, he added.