Mapletree Real Estate Advisors Pte Ltd (“MREAL”) is Mapletree’s private capital management arm headquartered in Singapore and is fully owned by Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd.
SINGAPORE – Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd (“Mapletree” or “the Group”) has entered into a forward purchase agreement to acquire an eight-storey office building comprising approximately 210,000 square feet (“sq ft”) of net internal area, known as The Sorting Office. This will be Mapletree’s first office acquisition in the Irish capital and is consistent with the Group’s strategy of diversifying earnings in scalable and developed markets. The vendor is Marlet Property Group, an Irish property developer.
Mr Michael Smith, Regional Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”), Europe and USA said, “We are excited about this opportunity as we have been exploring the Dublin office market for a few years, attracted by the robust tenant demand that has been driven by the city’s strong focus on information and communication technology. As such, we truly believe in this market and are confident that The Sorting Office will be well sought after – particularly as it is the only 150,000+ sq ft office building to be completed in the South Docklands area in the coming year. It is therefore no surprise that strong pre-let enquires have and will continue to be generated.”
Strategically located in the heart of Dublin’s Silicon Docklands, the South Docks of the Docklands Strategic Development Zone, the property is due for practical completion in November 2019. The area is recognised as a thriving business district, attracting a diverse mix of tenants in the technology, financial, legal and professional services sector. In addition, the property is well connected, being located within minutes from the Busáras Central Station, Spencer Dock LUAS Station and Pearse Street Dublin Area Rapid Transit station.
Situated on a site area of approximately 60,278 sq ft, the property boasts large and regular floor plates with flexible design allowing for vertical and horizontal divisions. Additionally, the property will enable tenants to work and socialise across collaboration spaces and terrace areas. It also offers 318 bicycle parking and 24 underground car park lots. Furthermore, the property is well served by an existing segregated cycle track with Coca-Cola Zero Dublin Bike stations located along the R801/North Wall Quay route. Other attractive features of the property include its sustainable qualities reflected in its LEED platinum rating and Building Energy Rating of A3.
Mr Pat Crean, CEO of Marlet commented, “The Sorting Office is an outstanding development in the heart of Dublin’s South Docklands and represents the very best of Irish design and construction. We are delighted that The Sorting Office will be Mapletree’s first investment in Ireland, further enhancing their growing portfolio in Europe. We look forward to other transactions and cooperations in the near future.”
To date, Mapletree has invested approximately S$2.3 billion in four offices and one business park in the United Kingdom as well as a suburban office building in Munich, Germany. The Group has also recently added an office building in Warsaw, Poland to its portfolio in May 2019.
Going forward, the Group will continue to build its portfolio of European Grade A office properties, in highly liquid, developed markets with attractive yield spreads and anchored by strong economic and property fundamentals.
An artist’s impression of The Sorting Office, located in Dublin’s South Docklands.
HO CHI MINH CITY – More than 300 wildlife photography enthusiasts and birdwatchers gathered at SC VivoCity in Ho Chi Minh City at the opening and prize presentation ceremony of the ‘Wild Birds and Mammals of Vietnam’ Photography Exhibition. Now in its second year running, this year’s exhibition held from 12 to 17 October focuses on the theme of endangered birds and mammal species in Vietnam, and is jointly organised by WildTour, the Vietnam Wildlife Photography Club and BirdLife International, supported by the Ho Chi Minh City Photography Association (HOPA), and sponsored by Mapletree Investments, Canon Vietnam and Lexar. ‘Wild Birds and Mammals of Vietnam’ is a culmination of a month-long, nationwide photography competition with a focus on Vietnam’s endangered species from July 2024 to early September 2024.
This year’s exhibition profiles wild birds and mammals in Vietnam. Vietnam supports some of the highest concentration of endangered species in Southeast Asia. Of note is Vietnam’s diversity of primates, among the most imperilled primate faunas in the world, and home to the charismatic Tonkin Snub-nosed Monkey and the Delacour’s Langur. Similarly, Vietnam’s bird fauna is rich but threatened by habitat loss and trapping for the pet trade. ‘More than 400 images were received by our team, many of them exceptionally high-quality images of some of Asia’s rarest bird and mammal species’, observed Mr Nguyen Truong Sinh, lead organiser of the competition and chairperson of the Vietnam Wildlife Photography Club. He also chaired the judging panel with seven other experts. Dr Yong Ding Li who represents BirdLife International on the panel agreed and noted that the images received were more diverse than the inaugural competition in 2023 and reflects a rapidly growing interest in nature photography in Vietnam.
The Exhibition coincided with the World Migratory Bird Day weekend on 12 October 2024, held twice a year to celebrate the spectacular movement of birds across the globe every Spring and Autumn. Over this time, millions of migratory birds can be expected to be on their journeys across the Asian continent, moving from wetlands to wetlands along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, including here in Vietnam. Several migratory species were featured among the exhibited images, including among them the Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Great Knot and Wallcreeper, the last an extremely rare visitor to northern Vietnam.
Mr Edmund Cheng, Chairman, Mapletree, added: “We are pleased to witness our support for environmental awareness in Vietnam gain momentum, starting from our first migratory bird event in 2023 at the wetlands of Can Gio. This commitment is influenced by Mapletree’s environment and education pillars, two of the four pillars under our Corporate Social Responsibility framework to enrich communities in markets where we operate.”
“It was great to see the high quality of submissions received from not just photographers in south Vietnam, but also from further away in Ha Noi and Da Nang. I was particularly impressed with the fantastic selection of Vietnam’s endemic and wild birds documented in these photographs. The selection of mammals was equally impressive, with some of the best shots of the rare Cat Ba Langur. Eventually our committee of judges agreed that the Tonkin Snub-nosed Monkey image by Mr Chung Van Thanh was the best of the lot”, observed Mr Nguyen Hoai Bao, director of WildTour and chairperson of the judging panel with five other experts.
This year’s exhibition is the fourth World Migratory Bird Day event supported by Mapletree since 2023, starting from the ‘Celebrating Migratory Birds in Vietnam’ activity organised in Can Gio wetlands by WildTour and BirdLife. In 2024, Mapletree supported the first ever Vietnam Bird Race, held at Tràm Chim National Park. The organisers and supporters of this event plan to build on the success of this year’s event and introduce new elements to attract more bird and nature enthusiasts from across Vietnam. The Vietnam Bird Race will take place annually and the next iteration is slated to be held in May 2025.
Figure 1. Chung Van Thanh’s portrait of a Tonkin Snub-nosed Monkey, among Southeast Asia’s rarest mammals, won the first prize.
Figure 1. Chung Van Thanh’s portrait of a Tonkin Snub-nosed Monkey, among Southeast Asia’s rarest mammals, won the first prize.
Figure 1. Chung Van Thanh’s portrait of a Tonkin Snub-nosed Monkey, among Southeast Asia’s rarest mammals, won the first prize.
Figure 1. Chung Van Thanh’s portrait of a Tonkin Snub-nosed Monkey, among Southeast Asia’s rarest mammals, won the first prize.
Figure 1. Chung Van Thanh’s portrait of a Tonkin Snub-nosed Monkey, among Southeast Asia’s rarest mammals, won the first prize.
Headquartered in Singapore, Mapletree is a global real estate development, investment, capital and property management company committed to sustainability. Its strategic focus is to invest in markets and real estate sectors with good growth potential. By combining its key strengths, the Group has established a track record of award-winning projects, and delivers consistently attractive returns across real estate asset classes.
The Group manages three Singapore-listed real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) and nine private equity real estate funds, which hold a diverse portfolio of assets in Asia Pacific, Europe, the United Kingdom (“UK”) and the United States (“US”). As at 31 March 2024, Mapletree owns and manages S$77.5 billion of office, retail, logistics, industrial, data centre, residential and student accommodation properties.
The Group’s assets are located across 13 markets globally, namely Singapore, Australia, Canada, China, Europe, Hong Kong SAR, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, the UK, the US and Vietnam. To support its global operations, Mapletree has established an extensive network of offices in these countries.
BirdLife International is a partnership of over 122 conservation organisations worldwide covering all continents, landscapes, and seascapes. As a leader in bird conservation, our unique local to global approach enables us to deliver high impact and long-term conservation for the benefit of nature and people. Our mission is to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, while working with people toward sustainability in the use of natural resources. Find out more at www.BirdLife.org
