Tan & Tan to explore further collaboration with Mitsubishi

KUALA LUMPUR: Tan & Tan Developments Bhd, which is jointly developing a RM617 million high-end condominium project with Mitsubishi Jisho Residence Co Ltd (MJR), hopes to collaborate further with the Japanese real estate player on other projects both locally and abroad.
"We are looking forward to opportunities to work together not only with the residential arm of Mitsubishi Estate Group (MEG). The Mitsubishi group as you know, are involved in commercial office buildings, hotels and a number of other development products, which fits very well with our IGB group of companies, which also has different arms.
"Tan & Tan is very much like Mitsubishi Jisho Residence that does the development side but we do hope to forge relationships in the other divisions," Tan & Tan CEO Tan Boon Lee told reporters at a signing ceremony yesterday.
Mitsubishi Estate Asia Pte Ltd managing director Shojiro Kojima said the joint venture (JV) on the Stonor 3 project is a good business opportunity for the group after looking for a partner in Kuala Lumpur for many years.
"So for us, it's a very great opportunity and when we have a partnership, usually for us it's not short term. It's more for the long term relationship and we are also looking at the potential of the Klang Valley area," he said.
He said the group has an office in Singapore, which was set up in 2008, and has already invested in the region namely in Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand with Malaysia being its fourth country in Southeast Asia. It also has a presence in China.
"We have been expanding this overseas business (MEG) in the last few years and in terms of Malaysia, we would like to (work further), with Tan & Tan or IGB group, (and also looking at expanding in) neighbouring countries, for example Indonesia," he added.
MJR senior executive officer Katsuaki Mori said Stonor 3 is its first project with Tan & Tan and it is open to future collaborations with the group both in Malaysia and Japan.
"For us, the first step in Malaysia is the condominium project. We want to do this step by step. It doesn't mean we are not looking outside the Klang Valley but we want to form the fundamentals in Kuala Lumpur first. If we see good results, we might think about outside for example Iskandar or Penang will be a good place," he said.
Yesterday, Tan & Tan signed a JV agreement with MJR Investment Pte Ltd (MJRI), a company formed by MJR, for the development of Stonor 3 along Lorong Stonor in KLCC.
The agreement sees the companies enter into a JV via an equity participation in Cipta Klasik (M) Sdn Bhd, a single purpose vehicle set up for the purposes of this development, with Tan & Tan owning a 70% stake in the company and MJRI owning the remaining 30%.
Stonor 3 is a 41-storey upscale residential property comprising 400 units of serviced apartments on 1.5 acres of freehold land slated for completion in 2018.
Tan & Tan executive director Teh Boon Ghee said the unit sizes range from 688 sq ft to 1,313 sq ft and prices start from RM1.1 million, averaging about RM1.45 million.
"That's our initial estimate but we're likely to refine this when we have a launch next year. Our launch will likely be in middle of 2015, after the GST implementation," he said.
Teh said it will tap into the international market for sales and expects the project to have 30% take-up from foreign buyers, which is a similar ratio to its other project, Three28 Tun Razak.
Tan & Tan has also been appointed as the project manager, marketing consultant and sales administration manager for the project.