Tishman Speyer Properties, a world leading owner, developer,
operator and fund manager of first-class real estate yesterday
acquired a 267,481-square-meter piece of prime Shanghai land.
The site in New Jiangwan Town in northeastern Yangpu District
fetched a price of 6.752 billion yuan (US$933 million).
It is designated for mixed purposes, including commercial,
residential and office, and has a total gross floor area of about
900,000 square meters.
The land was sold at its starting price - a per gross-floor-area
price of 7,500 yuan per square meter - as the United States company
encountered no competition, industry sources said.
"The final winner came as no surprise to me since a series of
strict requirements announced earlier by the local housing and land
resources administration bureau definitely barred all other
interested developers, both from the country and overseas, from
bidding," Xue Jianxiong, head of research at Shanghai Youwin Real
Estate Services Co, told Shanghai Daily during a phone
interview yesterday.
"It reflected the local government's high-end positioning of
this project as Tishman Speyer has vast experience in top-notch
commercial properties."
Major requirements for potential bidders included:
Owning and managing no less than five million square meters of
commercial property;
Developing no less than two million square meters of
comprehensive Grade A commercial and office space; and
Developing and managing no less than one million square meters
of comprehensive commercial and office space above large metro
hubs.
Tishman Speyer's landmark achievements include the Rockefeller
Center and Chrysler Center in New York and City Point and Tower
Place in London.
The New York-based company had earlier shown interest in a
13,709-square-meter prime-location plot in Shanghai which was
eventually acquired by Shenzhen-listed Suning Universal Co Ltd in
August at a record per-GFA price of 67,000 yuan per square
meter.
Industry experts said the final per-GFA price yesterday might
have an influence over future costs in the city.
"The sharp decline of land prices in the area could be viewed as
a government stance to curb the overheated real-estate market,"
said an industry insider who declined to be identified.
(Shanghai Daily January 24, 2008)
