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”) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a prime industrial site spanning 11,780 square metres (“sqm”), or 126,799 square feet (“sq ft”) for S$120 million. Situated next to Tai Seng MRT station, the plot has a permissible gross floor area (“GFA”) of 41,230 sqm (443,796 sq ft), and was secured at the bidder price of S$270.60 per square feet.
Mapletree plans to develop a modern high-specification industrial facility with office space and a retail centre on the plot of land, which is zoned as a Business 2-White site and located within Paya Lebar iPark, a 15-hectare modern industrial park in the central-east of Singapore. Besides its central location, the plot is also the only site at Paya Lebar iPark that will be connected directly at the basement level to the Tai Seng MRT station.
The planned development will augment Paya Lebar’s offerings by providing an ideal location for businesses in high-value light industrial and research and development services to be situated at. These include businesses in information technology, software design and development, research and development, engineering consultancy, and financial services back-room support.
The retail component on the other hand, situated along the busy Upper Paya Lebar Road, will further serve the surrounding industrial and residential community, with a proposed trade mix that includes food and beverage outlets, amenities, speciality shops, and childcare and enrichment services, aided by a convenient vehicle drop-off point. With more than 60,000 sq ft of retail offerings, the development is expected to inject vibrancy into the heart of Paya Lebar iPark.
Commenting on the new land acquisition, Mr Hiew Yoon Khong, Group Chief Executive Officer of Mapletree said, “We are happy to have received this award, as this will add to our existing portfolio – one industrial and two logistics properties – within the Paya Lebar iPark. We have been selective in our participation in government land sales in recent years, but this site merits attention given the choice location and interesting mix of industrial, office and retail offerings. Leveraging on our experience in developing and managing industrial and commercial properties, we aim to transform this site to a vibrant work and lifestyle hub.”
Mapletree Group’s other properties located within the Paya Lebar iPark are Mapletree Industrial Trust’s Tata Communications Exchange, and Mapletree Logistics Trust’s Allied Telesis and Natural Cool Lifestyle Hub.
The project is expected to be completed in the first half of 2016, at a development cost of approximately S$250 million. As a committed sponsor to Mapletree Industrial Trust (“MIT”), Mapletree will offer MIT the right of first refusal to acquire the asset if it were to divest this property in the future.
The site was awarded by JTC Corporation under the Industrial Government Land Sales Programme.
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
