Jaya Shopping Centre to open in March next year, 80% of retail space leased

Mall will offer cinema and supermarket as well as retail units as small as 100 sq ft for rent.



Jaya Shopping Centre to open in March next year, 80% of retail space leased

The new Jaya Shopping Centre will open its doors in March 2014 and will feature a mix of retail outlets spread out over seven floors. This will include dining options, supermarket, cinema and entertainment outlets as well as sportswear, fashion, children’s toys and gifts shops. It will also offer beauty and wellness spas, electronics and gadgets shops plus a banking hall.

 

“Jaya Shopping Centre was the first trading post for many local home-grown retailers. It was at Jaya Shopping Centre where they started and had their first big break. Three decades later, many of these retailers have become retail stars. And we have the privilege of having many of them returning to Jaya Shopping Centre,” said Jaya Section Fourteen Sdn Bhd director Ismail Ani Arope.

Ismail added, “We are continuing this legacy by offering smaller units for rent as small as 100 sq ft up to 800 sq ft to passionate young retailers with their interesting and unique merchandise. Due to the compact sizes of these units which translate to affordable monthly rental charges, these young entrepreneurs may be able to manage their cash flows. We encourage young entrepreneurs who have aspirations to have a presence in a retail centre to approach our exclusive leasing agent DTZ Nawawi Tie Leung Property Consultants with their concepts.”

“As a mid-sized and mid-end neighborhood shopping centre, Jaya Shopping Centre is perfect for shoppers who have an aversion to huge malls. As a community based retail centre, we want to inspire and empower entrepreneurs to follow their passion to be part of the vibrant and connected Jaya Shopping Centre,” said Ismail.

There is a dedicated zone located on Level 4 which emphasizes fun and creativity, breaking rules of normal straight shop fronts, tiled floors and lighting in regular arrangements. According to Ismail, the shops, irregular in size and shape will become platforms for young entrepreneurs and retailers.

With 270,000 sq ft net leasable area, the new Jaya Shopping Centre offers almost the double the retail space it  had before.

Built on an island site, the shopping centre will have dedicated ingress and egress lanes built parallel to Jalan 14/17 and Jalan Dato Jamil Rais 15. The most outstanding feature of Jaya Shopping Centre is the prominent five levels of glass curtain wall facing bustling Jalan Semangat which will allow visibility and interactivity between retailers and shoppers. This vibrancy will carry through to the ground floor alfresco dining concepts, says the mall’s developer.

The “boxed-out window frame” spaces on the façade will break the monotony of a plain exterior and showcase “happenings” within.

The verandah seating space on Level 3, in the Food and Beverage zone, meanwhile, is planned to be allow tenants to add alfresco dining options.  Furthermore, the skylight, will introduce natural light into the centre and “enlarge” the internal air-space visually.

“Every design decision was made with the aim of meeting the taste, lifestyle and demographics of the new PJ generation of retailers and consumers. We want the new generation of PJ’s community to feel proud of this new retail centre and we aim to meet its reputation of being a quality lifestyle hub, shopping spot and casual hangout,” Ismail added.

“Our positioning remains– Jaya Shopping Centre will again become the favorite neighborhood shopping place; a home outside home for the PJ population who lives and works in and around PJ and will continue to create strong ties with community and the next generation,” he said.

Jaya Shopping Centre will have four levels of basement parking that can accommodate 780 vehicles.  To date, it has achieved close to 80% take up rate.

The Star, 9/10/2013

Analysts expect RPGT to increase to 30% in Budget 2014 and pre-GST rush next year

PETALING JAYA: The local property sector may only see a real property gains tax (RPGT) increase in Budget 2014, according to a report by Kenanga Research.

It said it was expecting the tax rate to increase to 30% from 15% for properties sold within two years and 15% from 10% for properties sold within three to four years.

It said the 10% rate would remain unchanged for properties sold in the fifth year and zero RPGT for properties sold in the sixth year onwards.

“We believe this has been largely been discounted and priced-in somewhat, but we do expect some slight knee-jerk reactions for a couple of weeks post announcement,” it said. Budget 2014 will be tabled on Oct 25.

Kenanga Research also said the market could experience “panic buying” by investors next year if the goods and services tax (GST) was implemented in 2015.

“Experience from other countries had seen such trends in anticipation of future cost push inflations on asset prices.

 “This will benefit 2014 sales of developers as financing terms for the primary market is more favourable compared with that of the secondary market.

“We do expect developers to front-load their launches in 2014 on the back of higher demand, which will be a big booster to future earnings,” it said.

On the Johor property market, Kenanga said the restriction on foreigners from buying secondary properties from locals would be good for the rental market and new launches.

On the the 4% to 5% tax rate of the sales price of all properties, it said was unlikely to slow down demand from foreigners, especially Singaporeans, as properties in Singapore are three times to five times more expensive than Johor.

On another note, Kenanga said it did not expect the build-then-sell (BTS) model to be implemented in Malaysia.

“The Malaysian economy is not ready for a BTS model as many smaller developers will not be able to cope with such a model while larger developers with strong financial positions will likely price-in premiums of selling BTS properties.”

The Star, 9/10/2013

Clearwater Group eyes phase 2 release of Dream City next year

DATIN Dian Lee is clearly the meticulous sort.

Before settling down for a chat with StarBizWeek at the show house for Dream City, she shoots a quick question to her staff to enquire if the water feature outside is switched on.

In the tastefully decked out show unit, Lee fusses about with a piece of artificial cheese at the dinner table, which she has taken the trouble to make like the genuine article, replete with wine bottles.

One thing she did forget was the pair of blue Ray-Ban sunglasses propped on her head, a slip-up she would later fret about in mock displeasure.

But this is a minor quibble. The eldest daughter of the Country Heights Group and Mines Resort City magnate Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew has bigger things on her mind, like the launch of phase 2 of Dream City,the Clearwater Group’s third property and its first high rise.

The Seri Kembangan development was named after her daughter Jora Dream, although Lee had originally thought to call it Cloud City, in tribute to Bespin’s floating city in Star Wars.

Lee says her husband, private equity investor Datuk Jared Lim, is a huge fan of the movie series. Their youngest son, not coincidentally, is named Jedi.

Lakeside living

Spurred by the success of Dream City’s first three blocks under phase 1, the Clearwater Group plans to release the remaining four towers early next year. Phase 1 of the luxury lakeside residences is 75% sold to date, Lee says.

Seven appears to be an auspicious number for Dream City. It sits on 7.5 acres of land and boasts seven towers overlooking a pristine former mining lake, which are linked on the 7th floor by a 90,000 sq ft “skypark”.

Modelled after the curvature of limestone hills, Dream City has a total of 812 units, almost 400 of them in the one-bedroom category with built-ups of 550 sq ft.

Its penthouse suites top out at 2,560 sq ft, while the two- and three-bedroom units have a minimum size of 1,100 sq ft. Dream City’s tallest block stands at 28 storeys and the shortest at 14 storeys.

The RM400mil gross development value Dream City is slated for completion in the first quarter of 2017. The land has a leasehold tenure of 99 years.

Phase 1 was sold at an average of RM570 per sq ft, with prices starting at RM530 per sq ft, or RM330,000.

Lee says the pricing for phase 2 is yet to be finalised, but it will probably cost more given proposed upgrades such as air-conditioning, kitchen and sanitary ware.

Dream City’ award-winning design is a key selling point. Its 7th floor skypark features three types of gardens, three infinity pools, a jogging path, yoga pavilion and tennis courts.

Lee also plans to put in some retail or F&B elements, although this will be kept to a minimum so as not to overshadow the retail options already available at the nearby Mines Shopping Fair.

“My architect and partner Boon (Sim Boon Yang, founder and partner of Eco-ID) and I agreed that we wanted to keep the boutique feel of Dream City,” she quips.

“We could have maxed it out by building as many levels as possible, but that would have eroded its exclusivity.”

The concrete retention wall across from Dream City, which holds up a public school, won’t obstruct views as the carpark occupies levels 1 through to 7, Lee says. The residences will be constructed above.

“Dream City is not a big piece of land, but it has this beautiful view,” she enthuses. “It’s rare to find a 51-acre lake that’s 20 minutes from the city centre.”

Striking gold

Dream City’s buyers were mostly investors, according to Lee, with the client list spanning Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

One customer from Singapore booked a penthouse over the phone. “I told him the price and he said, ‘Ok, done’,” she shares. The penthouses, of which there are only 11, have been transacted for as high as RM1.6mil.

The Clearwater Group was formed in 2005 as a niche property developer by Lee, her husband and a group of investors. She didn’t take any seed capital from her father.

The small-sized developer started out with its namesake RM140mil, 18-storey Clearwater Residences on the edge of Pusat Bandar Damansara. This was followed by Blu constellation, a cluster of 108 triple-storey link homes in Bluwater Estate.

Lee was only 21 when she got the business going. But a greenhorn she was not.

During her time in Australia Lee helped manage her father’s property dealings in New South Wales, where he owned an empty piece of land the size of Singapore.

“We were trying to convert it into a golf resort from a farmland,” she recalls. “The property business is challenging everywhere. After I left the person who took over needed a few years to complete the conversion.

“There was a lot of red tape, and even protests from local communities. In some ways it is more difficult in Australia.”

While Lee is no longer involved in that project, she says it might eventually be part golf course, part resort and part truffle farm.

“We were so excited when we heard that the northern side might have gold reserves. All these geological studies were done, but no gold,” Lee chuckles.

Free advice
The Clearwater Group had some years ago agreed to take the reins of My South Lake from Lee senior, his daughter explains. It was subsequently rebranded as the 250-acre Bluwater Estate, a green township.

Lee and her partners then decided not to hold on to that much land, which would have been more than they could chew as a boutique developer. Clearwater kept only two parcels for Dream City and Blu constellation, and returned the rest to Lee’s father.

The tycoon later sold 47 acres to Bandar Raya Developments Bhd (BRDB), which Lee feels is a good thing for Clearwater.

BRDB, best known for its high-end Bangsar properties, recently opened sales for Senja. The “private lakeside estate”, as it is touted, comprises 62 terraces, 24 semi-D, 26 villas and two bungalows, with rates of between RM3mil and RM7mil. Senja’s completion is scheduled for June 2016.

There are no plans on the table for Clearwater to acquire more land within Bluwater Estate, Lee says. Dream City and Blu constellation were developed under a joint-venture agreement with her father as the landowner.

Lee is visibly enthralled by her work, even if the self-confessed “food lover, gym junkie and fashion victim” has a great many other interests.

She posted on her Instagram account several weeks ago a black-and-white snap of Blu constellation with the caption: “Site visit … almost there!”

The image sits alongside stills from her recent holiday to Japan, a selfie of Lee in leopard-print gym wear, jelly mooncakes and other fine cuisines.

Lee can take some pride in the fact that Blu constellation has been fully sold and will be ready for handover by the end of the year. Meanwhile, Clearwater Residences, which retailed for RM660 per sq ft in 2007, last changed hands at about RM1,150 per sq ft.

Current projects aside, Lee says she would like to add to her landbank, preferably in the outskirts of the Klang Valley, where “we will have room to build a community”.

“We only work on one thing at a time,” Lee quips, conceding that Clearwater hasn’t identified another development.

Still, Lee is adamant on keeping Clearwater in private hands. Her father, she says, is hands-off when it comes to the business.

“He gives me free advice every now and then. It’s because of him that I’m comfortable doing this,” she says, adding that company matters are rarely dinnertime conversation.

What’s next for Clearwater? Bali, if Lee gets her way. The town of Ubud on the Indonesian island is one of her favourite destinations.

“In five years Ubud could well be the centre of wellness in the world, and none of the developers have ventured there in a big way.” Might Clearwater be the first?

The Star, 5/10/2013