Glomac Tower still holds KL office record

Glomac Bhd’s landmark Glomac Tower continues to hold the enviable distinction of fetching the highest-priced ever for office space sold enbloc in Kuala Lumpur.

The 40-storey office tower next to the KLCC Petronas twin towers, located at the corner of Jalan P Ramlee and Jalan Pinang, was sold at the end of 2007 for RM577 million, or the equivalent of RM1,160 per sq feet.

That price has not been surpassed, as the Kuala Lumpur office property market was later dampened by the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 and oversupply fears, and has not recovered strongly.

Glomac Tower, for which construction is well under way, consists of a 40-storey office tower with two retail floors and 722 car park bays. It has a net lettable area of approximately 515,000 sq ft and sits on a plot of land measuring 57,025 sq ft that was purchased in November 2006 for a reported RM1,000 psf.

The project was a joint venture between Glomac and Al Batha group of the UAE, and was sold to Prestige Scale Sdn Bhd enbloc and off-the plan at the end of 2007, with the sale agreement signed in March 2008. The project is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2011.

Incidentally, Glomac Tower’s record price would have been surpassed had a subsequent transaction by YNH Property Bhd to sell Menara YNH on Jalan Sultan Ismail to Kuwait Finance House been successful. The sale of Menara YNH, proposed in January 2008, was priced at RM1,230 psf. However, the proposed sale was aborted after the financial crisis.  

Among other office space transactions, Menara CitiBank on Jalan Ampang was initially sold to IOI Corp Bhd for RM1,000 per sq ft in August 2008 but the transaction was later aborted during the financial crisis. The building was later sold to Hap Seng Bhd for RM827 psf in August 2009, or the equivalent of RM927 psf from the seller’s perspective including IOI Corp’s forfeited deposit.  

The other notable transaction in the vicinity is the sale of Menara Felda, within the Naza group’s sprawling Platinum Park development on Jalan Tun Razak. The 50-storey building with 689,000 sq ft of net lettable space was sold enbloc and off the plan to Felda for a reported RM640.7 million, or RM930 psf.


This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, October 14, 2010.