Tishman Speyer JV to Build M-U Development in Shanghai

By Gail Kalinoski, Contributing Editor

Tishman Speyer remains committed to development in China, announcing a new 3 million- square-foot mixed-use project in Shangai with joint venture partner Shanghai Lujiazui Group that will feature Class A offices, upscale retail and waterfront residential apartments.

The development will be built in The New Bund, a growing business center in Pudong. The area, about 15 minutes from the core of Shanghai, is located south of the Shanghai Expo site along the Huangpu River and adjacent to a Shanghai Metro hub station.

“It was important to identify a location where we could make a significant impact on urban development by delivering high grade residential, business and retail amenities,” Tishman Speyer Co-CEOs Jerry and Rob Speyer said in a news release Wednesday. “The New Bund offers tremendous accessibility to mass transit and great potential for long-term success. Working together with Shanghai Lujiazua Group, we are confident that this project will contribute to improvement of the local community as well as the sustainable development of Shanghai as a whole.”

Details about a timeline, cost and breakdown of how many apartments, stores and office buildings would be constructed are not available at this time, a Tishman Speyer spokesman told Commercial Property Executive. A report in World Property Channel said the mix would be approximately 50 percent commercial buildings, 40 percent residential and 10 percent public facilities.

The project is being at least partially funded by a $490 million Chinese investment fund Tishman Speyer just closed. The Financial Times reported that it was Tishman Speyer’s second renminbi fund raised in China since the beginning of 2012 and the largest raised by a foreign developer.

“This illustrates Tishman Speyer’s continuing growth in China, which has featured the cultivation of important partnerships leading to landmark projects ever since we arrived in the market in 2006,” the developers said. “We are already active in Shanghai, one of the world’s greatest cities, with The Springs and we look forward to a long-term presence.”

The Springs is Tishman Speyers’ largest development in China. Construction on the 9.7 million-square-foot development in the Yangpu District began in June 2011 and will be done in three phases. The first phase of the $2.5 billion project will feature 900 apartments and some retail that should be completed by next year. The finished development will include more residential, offices, retail, hotel and entertainment offerings. Nike, Inc. is building a 600,000-square-foot corporate campus in The Springs. The global sports equipment company is expected to move in by early 2014 and will be the first office tenant in The Springs. In January 2012, Nike signed a long-term lease with Tishman Speyer for a complex that will include three buildings, a five-story conference center, basketball court and soccer field.

As of June 30, Tishman Speyer had acquired, developed and/or managed a portfolio of more than 123 million square feet with a total value of about $64.8 billion. The owner of Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler Center in New York City, the global firm’s other signature holdings include Sao Paulo’s Torre Norte, Ventura Corporate Towers in Rio de Janeiro and OpenTurm in Frankfurt.