HCMC - Local property developer Bitexco Group on Monday announced the appointment of a French event management company to prepare for a surprise launch of its iconic skyscraper in downtown HCMC late next month.
Prisme International will color the skyscraper with fireworks and lighting effects at the launching ceremony for the Bitexco Financial Tower. It is the company that organized the launching of the world’s tallest structure Burj Khalifa in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai.
Pierre Marcout, chairman of Prisme International, told a press briefing held at the five-star hotel Sheraton Saigon in the city’s commercial district on Monday that the company would not only perform the event for VIP persons, but also for everyone in the city.
Marcout, however, declined to reveal details of the event but talked briefly about fireworks and lighting displays at the ceremony.
The project developer said the event was aimed at impressing local and foreign visitors on the city’s tallest building, but how much the company would spend on the much-awaited inauguration remains unknown.
Bitexco also announced on Monday that the workplace solution provider Regus would become a tenant at the building. Regus will lease some 1,000 square meters of office space on the 16th floor of the lotus-shaped tower, becoming the biggest tenant at the moment.
When in service next month, the 68-story building will offer around 37,000 square meters of Grade A office space and 8,000 square meters of retail podium.
Peter E. Dinning, general director of Colliers International, a marketing and management agent for the office section of the building, told the Daily at the news briefing that leasing commitments accounted for about 24% of the building’s space. With a list of potential tenants Colliers is working with, the office section is expected to be full in the coming time.
Dinning said many companies previously scaled back business operations but they were starting expansion, prompting an increase in office demand. Regus is an example; it is not moving from another building but it is expanding business.
He projected a more stable market trend, saying the local office market will neither go up nor go down abruptly.
Market observers said they expected rent to remain low due to large areas of new office stock entering the market, and that landlords were still offering incentives to attract tenants.
Brett Ashton, managing director of Savills Vietnam, said in a quick review on the market that the HCMC office market is facing an oversupply which can send rent down further over the next six months.
An additional 153,000 square meters of office will be on the market this year, thus worsening the oversupply situation, said Ashton.
The growing number of enterprises in Da Nang has "strongly affected" the city's office market, creating a strong demand for more supply, according to UK real estate service provider Savills.