Gubei gets set for upmarket project

By Cao Qian  |   2008-12-12  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

WORK on a 30-storey, 190,000-square-meter upmarket commercial project is due to begin today in Shanghai's Changning District.

The 1.3-billion-yuan (US$190 million) Gubei GIFC II, in southwestern Gubei new area, will comprise of Grade-A offices and high-end retail facilities and is due to be completed by the end of 2011, according to its developer Shanghai Gubei (Group) Co Ltd.

"Gubei GIFC is our first commercial project," said Yu Lin, a marketing official with the group. "This is a trial we've made to tap into another sector in addition to major residential developments."

The 40,000-square-meter first phase on Hongqiao Road, which began construction in 2004, meanwhile, is now ready for leasing with nearly 20,000 square meters of office space and 3,500 square meters of retail space available, the company said.

The whole project will comprise of three phases and will have a combined gross floor area of 330,000 square meters.

The city's Grade-A office market is expected to experience greater downward pressure on rentals over the coming few years mainly because of a supply glut spanning from 2008 to 2012, an earlier Colliers International report concluded. In 2009 alone there are some 650,000 square meters in the pipeline, said Colliers.

Latest figures released by DTZ, a major real estate brokerage firm, also showed that the overall vacancy rate for Shanghai's Grade-A offices stood at between 8 percent and 9 percent at the end of the third quarter.