Special Focus: Waterfront living at Puteri Harbour

With the hard and soft infrastructure in place, building work will soon start at Puteri Harbour — a waterfront and marina development. The first structure to take shape will be a family indoor theme park

Having spent two years and RM260 million developing the hard and soft infrastructure at Puteri Harbour in Nusajaya, Johor, UEM Land Bhd managing director and CEO Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim says the time is ripe to kick off the building structures at the waterfront and marina development. The first of these are the 60,000 sq ft family indoor theme park, a 300-room Traders Hotel and about 100,000 sq ft of retail space.

Early this month UEM Land sold two parcels of land totalling about 4.221 acres for RM26.7 million to Themed Resorts and Attractions Sdn Bhd (TAR), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Khazanah Nasional Bhd, for the development of a complex that will house the country’s first family indoor theme park, the hotel and the retail outlets. UEM Land will also act as the development manager for the project and managing it until it is completed, fitted out and handed over to TAR.

At the signing of the venture, Wan Abdullah expressed excitement about the proposed development. “We expect that it will create commercial activities and spillover effects that will add further value to Puteri Harbour.”

Touted as the jewel of Nusajaya — a 24,000-acre integrated development in southwest Johor and a key component of Iskandar Malaysia — Puteri Harbour is a waterfront and marina development that spans 688 acres offering a panoramic view of the Straits of Johor. Located adjacent to the Johor State New Administrative Centre (JSNAC), the developer says Puteri Harbour will be a unique luxurious lifestyle community, offering the experience of exceptional waterfront living, dining, entertainment, the arts and culture in a safe and natural setting.

According to the developer, Puteri Harbour will boast prime waterfront properties, offices and retail shops, food and beverage outlets, a transport hub (water transport terminal for water taxis and ferry, bus terminal, tram and LRT station), a marina (berthing, chandlery and accommodation facilities for boaters, yachters, boat/yacht charter owners/operators and water sports owners/operators) and a cultural park initiated and owned by the Johor government.

To be developed in phases spanning 15 years, Puteri Harbour is expected to be fully completed in 2021. However, 90% of the main infrastructure for the overall development will be completed by the end of this year. To date, the clubhouse for the public marina — with a gross floor area of 28,255 sq ft comprising office space, a café, charter office and other facilities — has been completed and operational since September 2008.

Additionally, the construction of the 76-berth floating pontoon for the public marina was completed in September 2008 and operations commenced in January this year when the first yacht sailed in on Jan 15, added the developer.

In a class of its own
As one of the seven signature projects aimed at catalysing the development of Nusajaya, Wan Abdullah says UEM Land realised early on that in making Puteri Harbour a reality, there was no room for error. “We realised that we could not afford to learn from our mistakes and it was with this realisation that we took on Cox Group of Architects from Australia to undertake the replanning of Puteri Harbour,” he says, adding that the architectural practice is renowned for its experience in planning urban waterfront developments. “We reanalysed all the waterfront elements, including the look of the waterfront as well as the density of the development.”

Given its development approach of going into partnerships, Wan Abdullah says the developer recognised the need for uniformity and thus came up with a set of urban design guidelines. “We are now persuading the local authority to adopt our urban design guidelines,” he says.

He adds that the initiatives put in place to differentiate Nusajaya from other cities also put Puteri Harbour in a class of its own. Encompassing four key areas, the initiatives include safety and security, an environment-friendly policy, an integrated intelligent city management platform, and telecommunications.

Collectively, these initiatives and the other aspects of the soft infrastructure make up some of the selling points of Puteri Harbour’s upcoming residential developments.

“This is a safe urban waterfront development with all the security features, including surveillance cameras and panic buttons. Residents will also be living in a development that has its own urban design guidelines, which have been carefully formulated and adopted throughout the development. The transport system has been designed so that there will be no congestion,” he says.

Wan Abdullah adds that Puteri Harbour is also enhanced by its proximity to projects such as a theme park, golf course and educational facilities. Close attention has also been paid to the landscaping of the development and to this end, the developer has engaged Oculus Landscape Architecture, says Wan Abdullah, adding that the landscaping master plan includes the creation of thematic gardens within Puteri Harbour.

Sustainability and environment-friendly features are also a priority at Puteri Harbour, says Wan Abdullah, pointing out that besides developing green buildings, UEM Land is also committed to protecting the environment. In constructing the marina, for instance, the developer employed double layers of silt curtains to prevent effluents from going into the Straits of Johor.

UEM Land was recently conferred the Best Master Plan Development award for Puteri Harbour by the Malaysian chapter of the International Real Estate Federation (Fiabci). For Wan Abdullah, this achievement is proof that its efforts towards sustainable development have paid off.

Strategic partnerships the way to go
In developing Puteri Harbour, Wan Abdullah stresses the importance of partnerships. “We can’t do it ourselves as we don’t have the financial capability to develop it all at once. Puteri Harbour needs to have that sense of vibrancy and for that we need strategic partners,” he says, adding that having different partners also gives Puteri Harbour a wider reach. “We hope to get more regional players to bring their own respective markets,” he says, adding that currently the developer has a few partners to be considered.

To date, UEM Land has partnered with Limitless LLC of Dubai to develop 111 acres of prime waterfront property into canal homes at the Residential North precinct. The 60:40 venture (UEM Land with 40% stake) is expected to launch the first housing units at end-2010. These properties have been planned to incorporate luxury waterfront housing units with the creation of canals and waterways that will, in turn, be linked to the public marina and the Straits of Johor.

In addition, UEM Land had in 2008 signed with UM Land to develop a RM840 million residential, commercial and retail development on 3.56 hectares of land.

For more details, call (07) 530 2122 or email: [email protected]



This article appeared in Luxury Living, the special focus pullout of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 782, Nov 23-29, 2009.