CapitaLand, Rock to build $660m integrated hub

(SINGAPORE) CapitaLand and Rock Productions will spend a whopping $660 million to develop an integrated civic, cultural, retail and entertainment hub at Vista Xchange, one-north, which is expected to be completed by 2011.

The hub will comprise two zones – a Civic and Cultural Zone measuring over 30,000 square metres in gross floor area, and a Retail and Entertainment Zone spanning 24,000 square metres in GFA.

JTC Corp awarded the tender to build, lease and operate the entire hub to Rock on Friday, on a 60-year lease term at a land bid price of nearly $189 million.

Rock will develop the Civic and Cultural Zone at a cost of about $280 million, while CapitaLand will invest another $380 million into developing the Retail and Entertainment Zone.

Designed by Andrew Bromberg of the commercial architecture firm Aedas Hong Kong, the hub will have eight levels of the former zone type and four levels of the latter.

The Civic and Cultural Zone is ‘envisaged to become the new dynamic art, cultural, meeting, convention and exhibition centre in Singapore’, a release said.

It will contain a proposed 5,000-seat, state-of- the-art theatre for touring concerts, family entertainment, and other large-scale conferences or events.It will also contain secondary performance and event spaces, like multi-purpose function rooms and outdoor amphitheatres. IMG Artists has been appointed to consult on and develop the strategies for the marketing and programming efforts.

The Retail and Entertainment Zone will comprise two levels above ground and two below. It will have an ‘open-concept with a spiral design’, allowing visitors to stroll casually along a gently sloping spiral walkway to visit the various floors. These will contain restaurants, cafes, supermarkets, fashion and other stores. The zone is envisaged to ‘replicate the atmosphere at Clarke Quay, the premier riverfront F&B, lifestyle and entertainment precinct in Singapore’, the release said.

Director of Rock Productions, Matthew Kang, said his firm’s ‘extensive research indicates an overwhelming need for a sizeable performance venue, away from the city’ but ‘well-equipped with state- of-the-art facilities’.

Vista Xchange is the first of three ‘centres of excellence’ under JTC’s one-north masterplan. Besides the hub, it will house offices, a business hotel and residential buildings over 17 hectares.

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Source: The Business Times