Boost for Mutiara Damansara?

Boustead Properties Bhd’s Mutiara Damansara township in Petaling Jaya will soon see the establishment of Curve NX, a 7-storey car park building, that comprises 625 parking bays, a McDonald’s drive-thru restaurant and an education theme park.

The RM80-million building will be built on two land parcels totalling 1.5 acres, including the site on which the current McDonald’s outlet (beside Wisma Bentley Music) now stands in the shopping belt of The Curve, Tesco Hypermarket and Ikano Power Centre. The adjacent parcel is beside the Cycle & Carriage showroom.

Construction of the complex will begin in August and is scheduled for completion end-2011, director of Boustead Holdings Bhd, Datuk Ghazali Mohd Ali tells City & Country.

He adds that the complex will be physically linked to The Curve via a sky bridge.

 “The net lettable area of CurveNX is 80,000 sq ft and has 625 parking pays to accommodate the overflow from The Curve. It is a building primarily for parking cars, in which KidZania Kuala Lumpur and McDonald’s will occupy a portion of the space,” Ghazali says.

The RM50-million KidZania Kuala Lumpur, an indoor educational theme park, will occupy about 60,000 sq ft on levels six and seven. The theme park, expected to open in 2012, will allow children to experience adult occupations first-hand.

The theme park was first set up in Mexico and has five branches so far in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the US, Monterrey in Mexico, Tokyo and Koshien in Japan and Jakarta, Indonesia.

Boustead Group had on June 23 signed a licensing agreement with Themed Attractions and Resorts Sdn Bhd (TAR), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Bhd, to develop KidZania Kuala Lumpur in Mutiara Damansara via Rakan Riang Sdn Bhd (RRSB) — a 80:20 joint-venture (JV) company between TAR and Boustead Curve Sdn Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Boustead Group.


Further appreciation?
Mutiara Damansara has seen impressive value appreciation in less than 10 years. According to transaction statistics on the freehold township, the value of vacant commercial land in Mutiara Damansara has risen almost fourfold to RM380 psf and above from RM99.12 psf in 2000.

In the 360-acre development, only 60 acres are used for corporate and retail lots, while the remaining 300 are for residential properties, a primary school and shopoffices. Many big retail and auto players have made their presence here, such as Ikea, Ikano Power Centre, Tesco Hypermarket, Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

Batu Kawan Holdings Bhd, Glomac Bhd and Mudajaya Group Bhd are among those that have also acquired land parcels in the township over the years.

Can the presence of this new theme park boost property values in Mutiara Damansara further?

Unlikely, property experts tell City & Country. They say that even though the theme park will bring in more visitors to the area when it opens in 2012, the main concern is whether the park can be sustained in the long term.

According to Tang Chee Meng, chief operating officer at Henry Butcher Marketing Sdn Bhd, the impact on property values in an area depends on a number of factors, such as economic conditions, crime rates and accessibility.

“The project is interesting but I don’t think it will have a big impact on property values. It will mainly attract people from the surrounding areas because people from other areas like Cheras and Ampang won’t go all the way there regularly, especially after the novelty wears off,” says Tang.

Metrohomes Sdn Bhd’s director See Kok Loong believes that the project could bring more traffic into the commercial hub of the township.

“Mutiara Damansara already attracts high traffic. However, some other developer may come out with the same concept or a newer concept to rival the theme park, so sustainability is the key,” says See.

Both Tang and See say only larger commercial projects that further position Mutiara Damansara as a commercial hub can boost the already high property values there.

Nucleus
Boustead Properties still has a one-acre tract as well as 10 adjoining parcels totalling 10 acres in the popular township. On the latter, the developer is planning a mixed development project called Nucleus with a floor area of about 1.4 million sq ft.

The project comprises eight blocks of high-rise buildings and one low-rise, consisting of corporate offices, serviced apartments, SoHos and retail outlets. The buildings will only be 10 to 12 storeys high as the developer would like to maintain a plot ratio of three to one.

The project is awaiting approval from the Petaling Jaya City Council. It is expected to begin at the end of this year or early next year.




This article appeared in City & Country, the property pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 761, June 29 - July 5, 2009.