From Seletar Aerospace Park to Biopolis and Fusionopolis, estates showcase green technologies for a sustainable environment

DEVELOPING industrial parks used to be relatively straightforward – clear the land, build the factory blocks and companies will come and set up their production lines.

But JTC Corporation’s job has got more complex over the years as Singapore’s manufacturing sector moved up the value chain. Industrial space has had to move beyond drab buildings, to incorporate elements of good design and environmental sustainability to attract investors.

This reflects the requirements of new economic clusters such as clean technology – sectors that need to be in areas that complement their business activities.

Also, researchers, product designers and other talent vital to these sectors are looking for more than a job these days. Many are looking for a high quality of life – and green liveable workplaces count towards that.

The wider green movement is hard to ignore. As the government puts more emphasis on sustainable development, JTC has to play its part by boosting the eco-friendliness of its estates. Examples include Seletar Aerospace Park, Biopolis and Fusionopolis.

Preserving heritage

JTC’s green initiatives will be plain to see at the upcoming Seletar Aerospace Park, a 300-hectare centre for aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul and aircraft system design and production.

The agency told BT: ‘Great effort was made during the planning process to balance economic and infrastructural space needs with the preservation of the area’s architectural and environmental heritage.’

When JTC was developing the park’s master plan, it consulted the National Parks Board and held dialogue sessions with the Nature Society on trees in the area. These discussions led it to retain nine heritage trees. Inevitably, some trees had to go for roads, and to ensure airport operations will be safe.

JTC has also kept 202 of the 378 heritage buildings on the site. It plans to convert some black-and-white houses into food and beverage establishments or training institutions.

Seletar Aerospace Park will be a unique centre ‘nestled in greenery and the charm of old Seletar’, the agency believes.

Besides preserving the character of the site as much as possible, JTC is looking at improving water quality there. It will test a gravel filtration system at the park, aimed at cleaning rainwater before it reaches drains and reservoirs.

The stormwater management system will comprise layers of gravel, coarse sand and granite, which will remove pollutants from rainwater. This will help save water treatment costs downstream.

The gravel filtration system will debut at the Business Aviation Complex. If it improves water quality, JTC could encourage other companies in the park to adopt it in their land parcels.

The Business Aviation Complex will also have other green features, such as natural ventilation systems, vertical greenery and energy-saving lights. Construction of the building began recently and is expected to finish by the first half of 2011.

Protecting environment

Biopolis is another estate that showcases JTC’s environment protection efforts. The first phase of the development at Buona Vista for biomedical research and development received the inaugural Green Mark Gold award in 2005.

The Building and Construction Authority came up with the Green Mark scheme that year to recognise environment-friendly buildings. Such buildings not only provide good publicity for developers and designers, but also use fewer resources and can help tenants save water and electricity costs.

Biopolis Phase One took the gold award for incorporating green technologies in its seven buildings. For instance, there is a district cooling system for centralised air-conditioning – water is chilled at one location and sent through a network of pipes to keep all seven buildings cool. This arrangement frees space that would have been needed for cooling equipment in each building and reduces maintenance needs.

Phase One also makes use of a pneumatic waste conveyance system. Non-toxic waste from the seven buildings is sent to a central collection area using a network of underground pipes. This removes the need to transport waste around the site.

The buildings are also test-beds for solar LED lighting, solar hot water systems and waterless urinals. For all these green measures, Biopolis phase one has won other accolades such as the PUB Water Efficient Building award and the Landscape Industry Association of Singapore’s gold award.

Providing green lungs

Nearby Fusionopolis is not to be outdone when it comes to environmental sustainability. The two towers in the first phase of development have 13 sky gardens between them. These spots, some with ponds and water wells, allow employees to take a break from work in the infocommunications, media, science and engineering centre.

The International Green Roof Congress in May last year recognised these efforts – the rooftop garden at Fusionopolis received the leadership award in the category for sustainable architecture.

The upcoming Phase 2B will extend the green theme, with more roof gardens and spiralling green terraces. It is designed by Ken Yeang, an architect renowned for his work on eco-skyscrapers, and will be ready by the end of this year.

Phase 2B will see ‘a network of open interactive public and semi-public spaces, creative use of skylights and courtyards for natural light and ventilation, and cascading landscaped garden terraces,’ JTC said.

‘It aims to inspire and meet the needs of its resident tenants in the creative industries with the provision of a wide range of intimate spaces with differing and flexible layouts.’

Source: Business Times, 30 Mar 2010

It will be a ’seed’ building to testbed and showcase innovative green solutions

(SINGAPORE) The first building at Singapore’s CleanTech Park is expected to be up by end 2011 at a cost of $90 million, JTC Corporation said yesterday.

With a gross floor area of 403,646 square feet, CleanTech One is expected to house about 40 green tenants, such as cleantech companies’ headquarters, firms financing cleantech activities, as well as private and public research institutions.

Nanyang Technological University, which is adjacent to the CleanTech Park, will be its first tenant.

Surbana International Consultants beat 30 other entries to win the design tender JTC launched last December, with its ecological and commercially sustainable design.

As the first development on the eco-business park launched last month, CleanTech One will act as a ’seed’ building to testbed and showcase innovative green solutions for tropical, urban settings.

These include solar panels, sky gardens, rainwater harvesting and sky trellises. If successful, these can then be rolled out to the rest of the CleanTech Park, Singapore and even the region, said JTC director for the aerospace, marine and cleantech cluster, Tang Wai Yee.

Surbana said that green features aside, the building itself was designed to minimise ‘cut and fill’ of the sloping terrain on which it is located, and takes into account the direction of wind and sun so as to reduce energy consumption.

Piling works will start around June while actual construction of CleanTech One should begin by August – an ‘aggressive and accelerated timeline’, Surbana said.

The 50 hectare CleanTech Park, which will house cleantech research, innovation and commercialisation activities, is expected to draw $2.5 billion worth of investments in buildings by its 2030 completion.

Source: Business Times, 30 Mar 2010

INDUSTRIAL landlord JTC Corp has unveiled the first cutting-edge building to be built at Singapore’s recently announced Cleantech Park for green businesses on Nanyang Avenue.

The $90 million building – called Cleantech One – will offer about 404,000 sq ft of office space that can house up to 50 green businesses when it is completed by December next year.

The building will incorporate state-of- the-art green features such as solar energy systems, rainwater harvesting, sky gardens and sustainable construction, said JTC at a briefing yesterday.

‘If the solutions we implement are successful, we will replicate this throughout the rest of the Cleantech Park and share it with the rest of Singapore and the region,’ said JTC’s director of aerospace, marine and cleantech cluster, Ms Tang Wai Yee.

The masterplan for the Cleantech Park – which will be Singapore’s first business park catering to green firms – was announced last month by JTC and the Economic Development Board (EDB).

When fully completed in 2030, the 50ha park will create 20,000 ‘green-collar’ jobs. It will be built in three phases at an infrastructure cost of $52 million, which does not include buildings.

The park will also serve as Singapore’s first large-scale integrated development, allowing firms to test-bed cleantech products and solutions – especially those catering to the tropics – before they are commercialised for the market.

JTC launched a design competition for the park’s first building last December and local architecture firm Surbana International Consultants emerged the winner from 31 entries.

JTC said Surbana’s entry won for its ecological features and highly compact design, which will offer office and laboratory space specially catering to cleantech firms.

Surbana senior vice-president (architecture) Frven Lim said yesterday that the building’s main features include a green corridor to connect tenants to the green centre of the Cleantech Park.

‘Cleantech One will also feature a ‘living atrium’ where tenants can interact in a lush, green landscape that is well- ventilated and makes use of natural lighting,’ he said.

JTC is aiming for the building to achieve the highest accolade for environmental performance – the Green Mark Platinum award.

Construction of the six-storey building will begin in June.

The park is located next to the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), which will be Cleantech One’s first tenant.

JTC said it is in discussions with other firms which may be interested in taking space at the building.

Source, Straits Times 29 March 2010

How JTC is employing green strategies for its upcoming CleanTech Park, and its project on air temperature prediction

IS IT possible for an agency to promote industrialisation and environment protection at the same time? As contradictory as these two aims sound, they have been central to JTC Corporation’s work in recent years.

In a way, JTC is moving with the times. As the dangers of global warming come to the fore, governments are doing more to cut carbon emissions. Businesses also want consumers to see them as environmentally considerate players. These are trends that JTC cannot ignore as it develops space for industries.

But JTC is also trying to move ahead of the times, by coming up with unique ways to protect and enhance the environment of its industrial parks. Its green strategies for the upcoming CleanTech Park and its project on air temperature prediction are some examples of its efforts.

Green CleanTech Park

Environment protection can be good business, and JTC is hoping to demonstrate that at the 50-hectare CleanTech Park, which would house companies developing, testing and commercialising clean technology.

As the agency’s chief executive Manohar Khiatani described, the park ‘will be emblematic of how businesses can achieve both economic vibrancy and environmental sustainability; functioning in harmony with nature’.

Achieving this harmony is likely to mean more work for JTC in building the park. First, it has committed to practise ‘minimal land cut’ in developing the greenfield site at Nanyang Avenue, which has a natural undulating terrain. It will have to lay out roads and individual land parcels according to the contours of the land.

Second, JTC plans to preserve biodiversity on the site as much as possible. It will identify trees and plants for conservation, and building works will take place around these conservation zones. Greenery lost from development will be replaced on vertical or rooftop gardens.

Furthermore, JTC is looking at collecting rainwater for irrigation and other uses. To do so, it will make use of the site’s topography and channel stormwater to low lying areas for treatment and storage. It has hired a hydrology consultant for advice.

Buildings at CleanTech Park also have to be environmentally friendly. JTC could encourage the use of recycled materials for construction. It will also come up with design guidelines for developments such that exposure to the sun is minimised, for instance.

Buildings at the park could also have other energy efficient features such as solar panels and rainwater harvesters. Monitoring systems would help ensure that these features remain effective even as the buildings age.

More interestingly, CleanTech Park will become a zone for the controlled testing of new green initiatives, such as recycling and car pooling programmes.

Plants in the sky

There are already plans to test out ’sky trellises’ at the park, aimed at providing shade and reducing heat at open spaces.

According to a study by the National University of Singapore (NUS), temperatures at the heavily built-up central business district tend to be higher than at green suburban areas, and the temperature difference can go up to 4°C. This strengthens the case for introducing greenery as a way to cool a site.

At CleanTech Park, JTC will build canopies between the roofs of buildings using steel wire mesh. Thereafter, the canopies will be covered with climbing plants. These sky trellises will not only reduce the amount of heat buildings absorb, but also make open spaces cooler for walking. If sky trellises take off at the park, JTC could replicate the idea on a larger scale.

While the green features are commendable, the general perception is that they cost more to build. JTC is aware of such concerns. ‘CleanTech Park will serve as an icon for the development and application of clean technologies and we shall strive to push the envelope but in a practical and cost effective way,’ Mr Khiatani said. Space at the park would be ‘priced competitively’.

Predicting the heat

Beyond hardware, JTC is also looking at software which would help it draw up environmentally sustainable master plans for industrial estates.

It is tapping on a customised web-based application developed by NUS, called Screening Tool for Estate Environment Evaluation or STEVE, to map the temperature distribution of sites.

According to JTC, STEVE is the ‘first of its kind’ in Singapore. Other climate assessment tools tend to be too complex for urban planners, and scientific researchers often have to be called in to interpret the charts and data produced. In contrast, STEVE is more user-friendly and flexible.

STEVE predicts temperature changes when variables such as the number of trees, building height or the position of ponds change. The application makes it easier for users to design sites which can be cooler.

The amount of energy which can be saved is significant – NUS previously found that a 1°C drop in outdoor air temperature can lead to a 5 per cent decrease in building energy consumption.

JTC and NUS have used STEVE to generate a climate map at one-north. The study, which JTC funded for $150,000, showed that the temperature difference between the warmest and coolest parts of the estate could be as high as 2°C.

JTC and NUS will be testing the application at other industrial estates such as Seletar Aerospace Park and Paya Lebar Industrial Park.

‘We are very excited about this development, because now planners won’t have to wait years to see if the outcome is what was expected,’ JTC engineering planning division director Koh Chwee told BT last month.

Source: Business Times, 23 Mar 2010

Funding of up to $1m for any project with cutting-edge innovations

JTC Corporation is looking for ‘cutting-edge’ ideas from the private and public sectors and academic institutions on how to intensify land use and create new industrial space.Ins

And it will provide funding of up to $1 million for each project proposal. The industrial landlord has decided to open up its innovation ‘dream fund’ – created to fund innovative projects internally – to external partners too.

‘Innovation is a high priority for JTC and we recognise that we can increase our capacity for innovation if we pro-actively reach out to external partners,’ said JTC chief executive Manohar Khiatani. ‘With this initiative, we hope to seek new inspiration to complement our own ideas and boost industry research in optimising, intensifying and creating new industrial space for the advancement of the economy.’

The maximum funding amount for each project proposal is capped at $1 million, and the duration at one year. Projects should not have started before the funding is approved.

Also, foreign organisations will have to partner a local organisation or have a local arm to participate. Applicants will know if their proposals have been successful by the third quarter of this year.

The overall theme for the inaugural proposal exercise is on the intensification of industrial land use – in line with what was recommended by the Economic Strategies Committee in early February.

The committee’s report said that Singapore has to support the intensification of industrial land use as there are now greater demands on the country’s limited land resources.

The focus for the proposal will be on three main areas: clustering relevant industries for increased synergy; reducing land use for infrastructure, transport networks, buffer zones and other facilities; and mitigating issues relating to high-rise industrial operations such as goods handling, vibration and urban heat.

JTC’s ‘dream fund’ was set up in 2004 to grow new capabilities to sustain Singapore’s competitive industrial edge.

Its innovative projects include Fusionopolis, Biopolis, Seletar Aerospace Park and the recently launched CleanTech Park. Besides these parks, JTC is pursuing other ideas such as new mega-hoist systems and a ’small-footprint high plot ratio’ for standard factories, which could cut costs and save space for businesses.

‘As an infrastructural solutions provider in Singapore, JTC places priority on developing innovative and sustainable infrastructure solutions to meet the evolving needs of businesses,’ JTC said in a statement.

Source: Business Times, 18 Mar 2010

CleanTech Park will be an icon for development and application of clean technologies

IT is a big project befitting grand ambitions. Last month, JTC Corporation and the Economic Development Board (EDB) announced plans to build Singapore’s first eco-business park in the western part of the island.

The 50-hectare CleanTech Park, with one million square metres of space, could establish Singapore as a centre for developing, testing and commercialising green technology, the agencies believe.

The park will be located on a contiguous greenfield site at Nanyang Avenue, and will take some 20 years to be completed, at a cost of $52 million.

The government expects that by 2030, the park would have created 20,000 jobs and attracted some $2.5 billion worth of investments in buildings.

‘CleanTech Park will serve as an icon for the development and application of clean technologies,’ said JTC chief executive Manohar Khiatani.

Business sense

Painting the town green, not red, is making both sense and cents these days. Certainly, the desire to cut carbon emissions and combat climate change is a key motivator behind governments’ push to develop clean technology, or cleantech. Finding environmentally sustainable ways to live has taken on a new urgency as evidence of global warming mounts.

But cleantech also makes business sense. The UK government estimated in 2006 that the global market for environmental technologies will grow to around US$700 billion by this year.

A multitude of sectors can derive greater efficiencies and reduce any negative impact they have on the environment with cleantech. Today’s cleantech industry comes up with new solutions or business models to help the energy, water, transportation, agriculture and manufacturing sectors, just to name a few.

As cleantech companies grow, they may also fuel the development of supporting financial industries, such as those offering venture capital, initial public offering (IPO) or merger and acquisition services.

The amount of money involved in such financial deals can be huge. For instance, Netherlands-based sensor maker Sensata Technologies Holding managed to raise US$568.8 million from its listing on the New York Stock Exchange this month. According to research firm Cleantech Group, this is the largest cleantech IPO since April 2008.

What all this means is that countries can live well, and also earn well by paying attention to the cleantech industry. The Singapore government has identified it as a key economic cluster, which could contribute around $3.4 billion to the country’s GDP and employ 18,000 people by 2015.

Attracting companies

How successful will Singapore’s first venture in creating a park for cleantech firms be? Both JTC and EDB have expressed optimism about the project’s prospects.

‘Companies are increasingly interested in commercial and research space that is eco-friendly,’ said EDB managing director Beh Swan Gin.

JTC’s Mr Khiatani also said: ‘We’re confident at the level of interest we’ve received, so we felt that we should start this rolling.’

CleanTech Park has already secured its first anchor tenant – Nanyang Technological University (NTU). NTU will be right next to the park and will house some of its research and development activities in cleantech there. This arrangement could foster collaborations between academia and private firms.

Siting the park next to the university is significant, said co-director for NTU’s Energy Research Institute, Subodh Mhaisalkar. ‘It will help us work seamlessly with key industry partners in CleanTech Park and allow our students to gain invaluable opportunities for attachment and hands-on experience in state-of-the-art green technologies.’

EDB’s Mr Beh agreed. CleanTech Park’s tenants will ‘benefit from the close proximity to NTU, thereby promoting the cross-fertilisation of knowledge and ideas to facilitate the development and demonstration of systems-level cleantech solutions’, he said.

The agencies will have to reach out to the private sector next. They are targeting not just cleantech firms, but also eco-friendly product and service providers, and businesses which have embraced environmental sustainability as part of their corporate social responsibility.

JTC and EDB hope that by 2018, CleanTech Park would have drawn around 250 local and foreign companies – including multinational corporations and small and medium sized enterprises.

Some industry players have expressed support for the project. According to a BT report last month,the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore’s chairman Edwin Khew said that the park would be ‘a very attractive place to generate business’. The association represents 140 companies and members are being encouraged to take out small offices in the park.

Green features

JTC and EDB will have to ‘walk the talk’ when it comes to developing CleanTech Park – as a space for companies promoting environmental sustainability, the park also has to be eco-friendly.

The agencies will be adopting a ‘minimal land-cut’ principle to conserve trees and landscape. The park itself will also be a test-bed for green ideas such as the sky trellis – there will be plant-covered trellises between buildings to make walking outside cooler.

Space at CleanTech Park will be ‘priced competitively’ even with the focus on the environment, said Mr Khiatani.

CleanTech Park will be built up in three phases. The first phase will create around 17 hectares of business park land from this year to 2018. The second and phase will take place from 2019 to 2025, and the park will be completed at end-2030.

Source: Business Times, 16 Mar 2010

JTC invites consultants to study impact of cavern at Tanjung Kling site

No stone is being left unturned in Singapore’s underground push. Even the birds at Jurong Bird Park will not be ignored as the impact of construction and cavern operation on them will also be taken into account under a full-scale feasibility study called last Friday for an underground warehousing/logistics and data centre in Jurong.

The three-phased comprehensive study of the Tanjung Kling site – from preliminary geological assessment and market research to concept development – is expected to take up to two years in all, and follows a five-month ‘geological investigation and ground characterisation’ study called last November.

JTC Corporation on Friday invited consultants to undertake the latest study for what will be its third mega underground facility – following the start of construction recently of its $1 billion first-phase Jurong Rock Cavern to store oil, and its on-going 14-month feasibility study for an underground science city (USC) at Kent Ridge.

Both the USC and underground warehousing and data centre could be undertaken concurrently if the studies prove feasible, JTC earlier told BT.

Even the Economic Strategies Committee in its report last month recommended that Singapore’s push underground – given the limited surface land available here – be supported by a national geology office which should, among other things, develop a subterranean land rights system and determine how underground areas can be priced.

For JTC’s latest study, the appointed consultant will need to assess the technical requirements of warehousing and logistics players and developers and data centre operators, in order to develop the facility’s conceptual design.

The site comprises Tanjung Kling and Jurong Hill and is bounded by four roads – Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim, Jurong Pier Road, Jalan Buroh and Pioneer Road. It can potentially provide cavern space of over 1.1 million square metres and free up 45 hectares of surface land for other uses.

The consultant will also engage specialists, including environmental consultants and ornithologists, to ’study the impact of the underground development, during both the construction phase and the operational phase, to existing surface developments, traffic, environment, population working in the area and birds residing in the Jurong Bird Park,’ the JTC tender said.

‘Of particular concern will be the impact of construction noise and vibration… to the behaviour of birds in the Bird Park. The consultant shall engage with Jurong Bird Park to address their concerns on such impact to their bird population as well as to their operations,’ it stressed.

The preliminary geological assessment – expected to take five months – will include the consultant’s take on the total cavern space and volume that can be constructed.

Next will be the preliminary concepts, with the consultant recommending – from a list of usage possibilities like general cargo and chemical logistics to container depot – on what will be viable for siting in the underground cavern.

Finally, the study’s concept development phase will include its design, method of excavation and will even explore the feasibility of locating a district cooling system in the cavern complex.

The Tanjung Kling area was chosen for the underground ware- housing/data centre facility after earlier studies of geological conditions, JTC said. By going underground, the facility will enjoy advantages like shielding from heat and temperature humidity, have low background radiation and have less disturbance from vibration.

Source: Business Times, 9 Mar 2010

Five parties said to have tendered for job of marketing Jurong East building

JTC Corporation is seeking to lease out about 95,000 square feet of offices at its headquarters building near Jurong East MRT Station. It recently conducted a tender exercise to appoint a sole marketing agent to help it find tenants for the building.

The space to be leased represents about 21 per cent of the building’s total 447,778 sq ft net lettable area.

BT understands that JTC itself occupies about 10 floors in the 32-storey building; the rest of the building’s occupied space is leased to other tenants.

The 95,000 sq ft of offices is believed to be from expiry of tenancies and JTC intensifying its space usage by reducing space per head and regrouping its staff according to industry clusters. The statutory board has been at JTC Summit for a decade.

‘As part of JTC’s process for leasing space, JTC called a tender on Jan 29, 2010 for the appointment of a sole marketing agent to undertake the leasing of JTC Summit’s office space, for a period of one year,’ a JTC spokeswoman told BT.

The tender closed on Feb 12. JTC is evaluating the proposals, and the results should be available by next month, she added.

Five parties are said to have tendered for the job – CB Richard Ellis, DTZ Debenham Tie Leung (SEA), Savills (Singapore), United Premas and Advanz International.

BT understands that some of the space to be leased at JTC Summit covers entire floors – such as the 27th and 28th levels.

According to its website, JTC is seeking a flat rent of $44 per square metre a month (or $4.09 per square foot a month) for space on Levels 1 to 30.

Industry observers point to limited supply of office space in the western part of Singapore, although there is business park space.

BT understands that landlords of newer office blocks in Tampines are seeking monthly rentals of $4-5 psf.

According to JTC’s tender documents for appointing a JTC Summit marketing agent, the commission rate will be one month’s gross rental for areas up to 5,000 square metres or 1.25 months gross rentals for areas above 5,000 square metres.

Tenderers’ marketing proposals will be evaluated on their marketing strategies and concept, as well as track records on similar projects and manpower commitment.

Source: Business Times, 9 Mar 2010

SINGAPORE is planning to create its own hedge-fund capital modelled after Greenwich, Connecticut, in a cluster of ex-British army homes called Nepal Hill, a 15- minute cab-ride from the city-state’s main banking district.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore and JTC Corp – the government agency developing and marketing the project in Nepal Hill – quietly asked hedge fund managers in January to visit the district’s so-called black-and-white bungalows, named for their white-washed walls and dark timber frames, according to a copy of the invitation obtained by Bloomberg News.

Singapore is seeking to attract firms planning to expand in the region as Asia leads the global economic recovery and the US and Europe increase regulation. The proposed cluster follows tax and regulatory incentives that have made it easier for funds to set up shop on the island than in Asian cities such as Hong Kong and Tokyo, helping the industry grow from near zero in 1997 to almost 140 firms today.

Aisling Analytics Pte will ‘certainly look at it as a potential location’ when its lease at Suntec City, next to the central business district, comes up for renewal, said Michael Coleman, the hedge-fund firm’s managing director.

‘I’ve visited and think it’s a very interesting development and a great alternative to a traditional office,’ he said. ‘You’re surrounded by greenery, have your own garden to enjoy and the area is rapidly developing.’

The downside is that it’s ‘off the beaten track’ for investors used to meeting in Singapore’s main office districts, Mr Coleman said. Aisling manages the US$1.6 billion Merchant Commodity Fund and the Merchant Equity Fund.

Rents in Singapore, the most expensive in Asia after Tokyo and Hong Kong, fell 46 per cent, on average, in the fourth quarter, the steepest decline in the region from a year earlier, according to Boston-based commercial real estate company Colliers International. The average top-grade office monthly rental in Singapore’s central business district fell to an average of $6.29 (US$4.50) per square foot in the last quarter, Colliers said in a report last month.

JTC could lure managers by making rents at Nepal Hill ‘very attractive, at least at the beginning’, said Stephane Pizzo, who set up his hedge-fund investing firm, Lotus Peak Capital, last year. He said that he has yet to view the proposed enclave because the space offered was ‘too large’ for his business. He currently works from a refurbished shophouse in Chinatown where more than half a dozen Italian restaurants are within walking distance of his office.

‘The hub idea on paper is great, but it needs to be encouraged,’ Mr Pizzo said. ‘The more people and incentives to move there, the better.’

Nepal Hill is part of a development called ‘one-north’, referring to Singapore’s location one degree north of the equator, that is already home to industry clusters including Singapore’s biomedical research hub, Biopolis. The 180-hectare area will be developed in stages within the next 20 years, JTC said in the invitation to managers.

The bungalows, which formerly housed British army personnel and their families, are remnants of Singapore’s history under British colonial rule. The proposed enclave is across the road from the Rochester Park dining hub, where restaurants such as Min Jiang, which serves Szechuan cuisine, and bars including Da Paolo Bistro Bar are also housed in colonial bungalows.

The island-state’s hedge fund industry has grown to 138 single-strategy hedge-fund managers employing more than 800 professionals from near zero in 1997, according to a survey by the local chapter of the Alternative Investment Management Association.

The industry oversees at least US$34.9 billion, excluding assets managed by several of the large global firms, it said, making it Asia’s second biggest behind Hong Kong.

Source: Business Times, 6 Mar 2010

one-north site may turn into hedge-fund capital

THE cluster of 16 black-and-white bungalows in Buona Vista was once home to British troops stationed in colonial Singapore. But the rustic area, called Nepal Hill, may soon turn into the country’s newest financial district.

JTC Corporation – the agency developing and marketing Nepal Hill – said in a statement yesterday that it is in talks with investment managers about the site.

‘Nepal Hill is one of the heritage areas within one-north,’ it said. ‘It is also an alternative location for investment managers which is envisioned to strengthen Singapore’s value proposition as a premier asset management centre in Asia.’

Bloomberg News reported yesterday that Singapore is planning to create its own hedge-fund capital modelled after Greenwich, a town in the United States with a high concentration of hedge funds.

Hedge funds are large privately-run investment funds that have increasingly dominated the global investment scene in recent years.

Bloomberg said the Monetary Authority of Singapore and JTC Corp had courted fund managers by inviting them to visit Nepal Hill at a networking event in January.

The site is part of one-north, JTC Corp’s 200 ha innovation and research hub, which includes science and technology research centre Fusionopolis and biomedical hub Biopolis.

JTC Corp said two years ago that the bungalows – commonly referred to as black-and-whites due to their white-washed walls and black frames – were being refurbished for ‘adaptive use’.

But the rare and lush enclave, just a 14-minute train-ride from Raffles Place and across the road from trendy dining spots in Rochester Park, could offer hedge funds and other high-end financial service providers an alternative to concrete skyscrapers downtown.

With Asia leading the global economic recovery, Singapore continues to be an attractive location for firms looking to expand in the region.

The proposed increase in regulation by Western authorities, coupled with tax and regulatory incentives here make it more appealing for hedge funds to operate in the Lion City.

Details are still sketchy as far as rental rates and how the site will be further developed are concerned, but the response from hedge funds have been mixed so far.

Aisling Analytics’ Michael Coleman told Bloomberg his firm will look at Nepal Hill as a potential location when its lease at Suntec City is up for renewal. ‘I’ve visited and think it’s a very interesting development and a great alternative to a traditional office,’ said the hedge fund managing director.

‘You’re surrounded by greenery, have your own garden to enjoy and the area is rapidly developing.’

However, Man Investments’ executive director Timothy Peach, who has also visited the site, feels that Nepal Hill would not work for his company, which is based at One George Street. ‘Almost all of our clients are based in the CBD, and we have to be close to them,’ said Mr Peach, who lives in a black-and-white off Tanglin Road.

‘It’s a nice little idea but definitely not suitable for us because we’re one of the largest hedge fund companies in the world employing some 1,500 people globally.’

Source: Straits Times, 6 Mar 2010