City & Country: Tropicana launching more homes in Subang

FOLLOWING the strong take-up of Pandora Serviced Residences, the first phase of Tropicana Metropark’s residential component, Tropicana Corp Bhd (formerly known as Dijaya Corp Bhd) is all set to launch the second phase — Paloma Serviced Residences — later this month.

Tropicana Metropark is an integrated development on 88 acres of freehold land in Subang Jaya, Selangor, with an estimated gross development value of RM6.25 billion. Tropicana had bought the land from Taiwan’s Chunghwa Picture Tubes (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd for RM385.5 million last year.

Loh: The overall design of Tropicana Metropark is inspired by developments along the Yarra River in Melbourne

According to Pamela Loh, Tropicana Corp’s marketing and sales executive director, the overall design of Tropicana Metropark is inspired by developments along the Yarra River in Melbourne, Australia.

This is not surprising as Melbourne has been named the world’s most livable city — for the third year in a row — by the 2013 Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Livability Survey. A total of 140 cities were surveyed under five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

Loh, however, points out that the commercial and retail components of Tropicana Metropark will mirror the developments along the bustling Oxford Street in London, the UK, and Ginza Street in Tokyo, Japan.

Tropicana Metropark will also boast a shopping mall and a medical centre and act as an entertainment and education hub. In the heart of the development will be the 9.2-acre Central Park that will feature a pedestrian promenade, a waterfront, jogging and cycling tracks and a children’s playground.

With a total built-up area of over 11 million sq ft, Tropicana Metropark will come up in nine phases — five residential and four commercial.

The second residential phase

Comprising a total of 571 units in two 29-storey buildings and 16 courtyard villas, the 3.82-acre Paloma Serviced Residences has an estimated GDV of RM465 million and faces Central Park.

The built-up of the units is 600 sq ft (1-bedroom), 900 sq ft (2-bedroom) and 1,300 sq ft (3-bedroom) while that of the courtyard villas is 2,200 to 2,500 sq ft. Prices are expected to start at RM850 psf.

“Based on the overwhelming demand for the larger units in the first phase, we decided to build more 2 to 3-bedroom units in this phase,” Loh tells City & Country at the project’s sales gallery in Subang Jaya. The developer is targeting young families with family and friends living in the surrounding areas, she adds.

In the heart of the development will be the 9.2-acre Central Park

In fact, since the first phase, the developer has registered a total of 4,000 interested parties on its database.

“Subang’s appeal is that it is a self-contained and mature township. There are shopping malls, hospitals, schools and institutes of higher learning all in one area,” Loh points out.

Paloma Serviced Residences’ facilities will be located on two levels. Level 3A will feature an infinity pool, a half-sunken basketball court, lifestyle pavilion, barbecue area, Jacuzzi and yoga and lounge deck. Level 30 will house a sky gym, gourmet kitchen for private functions, reading room and meditation corner.

According to the developer, all the units will have ample storage areas while the 2 and 3-bedroom units will have a yard. All the units come with kitchen cabinets, hood, hob, microwave oven, air-conditioning units, hot water storage, shower screen and quality finishes, such as timber floors in all the bedrooms. The air-conditioning ledge of the units is also positioned away from the façade of the buildings.

The 1-bedroom units get one parking bay each while the others get two each.

The developer is also providing parking space for bicycles to encourage the residents to cycle around the neighbourhood.

By comparison, the first phase consisted of two 25-storey buildings with a total of 627 units. The size of the units ranged from 600 to 1,200 sq ft. This phase, which has an estimated GDV of RM365 million, was officially launched in May at RM780 psf (after rebate) and is more than 90% sold.

Accessibility

Sandwiched between Subang Jaya and Shah Alam, Tropicana Metropark enjoys accessibility via a network of highways, such as the Federal Highway, the North Klang Valley Expressway, the North-South Central Link, the Shah Alam Expressway, the Damansara-Puchong Highway and the New Pantai Expressway.

However, Subang Jaya is famous for its notorious traffic jams, something that Tropicana Corp took into consideration when it was planning Tropicana Metropark. It will construct a RM150 million flyover after the Batu Tiga toll that will link Tropicana Metropark to the Federal Highway. The developer hopes to start work on the flyover by early January and complete it by 2016 together with the first phase. The entire development will be completed in 2025.

Tropicana Corp is in negotiations with Bandar Raya Developments Bhd, which has a piece of land adjacent to Tropicana Metropark, to get the approval and support of the government to move the nearby Batu Tiga KTM station closer to their developments.

Recent work on the extension of the Kelana Jaya light rail transit line, which will no doubt help ease traffic woes in the long term, is now causing major jams along the arterial roads in Subang Jaya.

According to the developer, although LRT to the area was originally targeted to start operating by the end of next year, it has been told that there could be a delay with the possibility of completion in March 2015.

Paloma Serviced Residences’ facilities will be located on two levels

Upcoming plans

Pandora Serviced Residences is currently under construction and is scheduled for completion in 2016, together with the flyover and Central Park.

There are three more phases in the residential component of Tropicana Metropark. After Paloma, the developer will either launch more serviced residences or small offices/home offices, says Loh, adding that the next phase is targeted for launch in the first half of 2014.

Politely declining to give details, she says, “We will see how our customers respond to this launch. The trend is always changing. We want to give our customers the best.”

Loh does not believe the announcements made in Budget 2014 will have a major effect on the company’s sales and marketing strategies for the residential component of Tropicana Metropark.

“I suppose there will be less speculation, but for this project, we are targeting local owner-occupiers. Also, the construction period of this phase is about 45 months.”

Commenting on the development’s commercial component, she says, “As much as we want to launch it, we are not quite sure how the market will react to the Goods and Services Tax of 6% yet.”

However, she believes there is demand for commercial properties in the area. “People now prefer to live near their offices. We already have a ready market of locals who want to work in this area.”

Tropicana Corp has about 2,200 acres of landbank with a potential GDV of RM91 billion located in Johor, the Klang Valley, Penang and Sabah. It plans to soft-launch Tropicana Kajang, which is sited on 199 acres of freehold land that previously housed the Kajang Hill Golf Course, early next month.


This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on November 18, 2013.