Sunway City, a new corporate address

Mention Sunway City and children will squeal with delight with the Sunway Lagoon Theme Park on their minds, or the ice-skating rink located inside the Sunway Pyramid Shopping Centre. Meanwhile, young adults will relate to the universities in the township such as Monash University and Sunway University, while tourists and foreigners who come here for work and play will recognise Sunway Pyramid Hotel, Sunway Resort and Sunway Clio Hotel. With such ample amenities including Sunway Medical Centre, the township is also a popular residential address.

More recently, Sunway City has gone one step further and emerged as a prominent corporate address in the Klang Valley especially with the presence of office towers such as Sunway Pinnacle and Sunway GEO Tower.

“I think we have very much overcome the public perception of Sunway City being just a ‘resort city’ with the acceptance from multinational corporations that this is a new corporate address. It is evident from the tenants we have attracted to our office towers such as Roche, Pepsi-Cola and Ericsson Malaysia, all which are multinational firms,” says Sunway Property & Facilities Management Sdn Bhd (SPFM) chief operating officer Cheng Jew Keng. SPFM is Sunway Group’s asset management firm.

Cheng reveals that, just a few weeks ago, a tenant at Sunway Pinnacle Shaklee Corp had moved to the ground floor of the newer Sunway GEO Tower, as being in a high-rise building was not suitable for their business. “And we are in the midst of concluding a deal with one of the top consultancy firms in the world to occupy the currently vacant floor in Sunway Pinnacle, so it will soon have a 99% occupancy again,” he says.

Sunway Pinnacle is Sunways City’s tallest building — standing at 27-storeys with a gross floor area of more than 1.14 million sq ft. Sitting on a 1.8-acre site, the development’s unique selling point lies in its 25,000 sq ft floor plates, catering to companies that want to fit their entire building operations on a single floor. Of note is the fact that Sunway Pinnacle has outperformed the market in terms of average rentals and yield. Its net rental yield has outperformed the market average by 0.7% in 2016. The project has also achieved a lower outgoing rate of RM1.14 psf than the average market rate of RM1.50 psf. 

Meanwhile, Sunway GEO, which is located along Jalan Lagoon Selatan and just a 10-minute walk from Sunway Pinnacle, received its Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC) in January. With 230,000 sq ft in gross floor area, the 17-storey tower with one level of Sky Gym at the rooftop has already seen 86% of its space pre-leased. Shaklee and Genpact Malaysia have already moved into the tower, with other major tenants such as Nielsen Malaysia, British American Tobacco Malaysia and Seedri International moving in by the third quarter this year. Clearly, the oversupply situation in the office market has not affected Sunway City’s office towers. 

“The tenants at Sunway GEO Tower will be well supported by the retail at Sunway GEO Avenue, which is directly attached to the corporate offices. We will see some 1,400 white-collar professionals working at Sunway GEO Tower at the end of this year. We have already secured Jaya Grocer as the anchor tenant of Sunway GEO Retail, and we are currently looking for a potential food court operator. Just opposite Sunway GEO Tower is Sunway Medical Centre, so there is a need for good food and beverage outlets to cater to them as well,” offers Cheng.

In terms of public transport accessibility, Sunway GEO is directly connected to the SunMed BRT station — the BRT-Sunway Line plies seven stations around Sunway City, linking the communities of Bandar Sunway, Subang Jaya and USJ. This allows residents to travel to KL city centre and Kuala Lumpur International Airport with ease via the Setia Jaya KTM Railway station and the Kelana Jaya LRT Line in USJ 6.

Cheng also stresses that safety is one factor the group does not take lightly. “Sunway City is a compact, transit-oriented township and is Malaysia’s only township that is under surveillance by 3,000 CCTVs, and guarded by 1,000 security personnel, including 500 auxiliary policemen”.

An integration of amenities

Cheng notes there is no other place in the country that has such a full integration of the supporting components as Sunway City – residences, retail, hotels, theme park, education institutions, medical centre and other offices.

“The trend now is to move away from the city. Big organisations are moving out of the city centre because rental is simply too expensive. One of our tenants, Roche Malaysia, moved in to Sunway Pinnacle from Kuala Lumpur city centre and made a double-digit saving in terms of rental. What we have gathered from our tenants is they like our prime location with accessibility from major highways. Those who are taking public transport can use the Bus Rapid Transit system to service their needs,” he says.

One of the advantages that Sunway City has is, with Sunway Property as the master developer of the township, it is able to ensure that all the components in the Sunway City master plan are able to complement each other in the township.

“From security to the management of the buildings, they are handled by the Sunway team. Our buildings are also unique — very much data-driven kind of design. We use the Virtual Design Construction methodology, whereby we can envision what the building will look like even before the building is completed,” says Cheng.

Part of Sunway’s success is contributed by the company’s ability and dedication in meeting its tenants’ requirements. From energy saving targets, smart integration of building technology and automation system, to customising floor plans and having various protocols to meet safety requirements, the Sunway team is able to prioritise customers' needs and deliver as per promised.

An iconic skyline

“Is this the right corporate address, you ask me? I will say ‘yes’. The future is exciting for this township. We have just launched our Innovation Lab at Menara Sunway on May 4, for people to use as a co-working space. We have a huge ecosystem of academia in Sunway City, and we believe that we can all come together to find new solutions in the new digital economy.

“Other than just aiming for our office towers to be MSC-certified, the Malaysia Digital Economy Corp has come up with a new smart development status called Malaysia Digital Hub – an initiative that supports tech and digital co-working spaces, their start-ups and communities with support from the government. It also offers opportunities to connect to Asean and the global digital ecosystem. We are quite certain that we will be given the status of a new digital hub,” says Cheng.

The future will see a five-acre land located just in front of Sunway Pinnacle developed as an office tower. Currently, it serves as an open air car park.

“Perhaps when the property market gets better and the oversupply situation in the office market improves, we will start building the office tower,” he says.

Sunway Property is also working on establishing a vibrant environment for the commercial developments along Jalan Lagoon Selatan fronting the hospital. “We are looking to have some retail and lifestyle facilities to be integrated with our Sunway South Quay lake,” he adds.

One of the unique aspects of Sunway is that not only do they build properties, but they also own and manage their own properties. “Because we own a majority of the properties, we are committed to maintain the facilities and take good care of what we build. I always tell my clients: you won’t go wrong when you choose any property owned and managed by us.

At the recent TheEdgeProperty.com Malaysia’s Best Managed Property Awards 2017, Sunway Pinnacle emerged the silver winner in the non-strata commercial category.  The building was also a recipient of The Editor’s Choice Awards and given the title Built for Sustainability. 

“Our Sunway team is empowered with three core business values — integrity, excellence and humility in everything that we do. We always strive to deliver beyond our customer’s expectations,” Cheng emphasises.

What will Sunway City be like in the next five years?

“If you have been to Perth and stood across the Swan River, you will see a very beautiful skyline of all the buildings standing tall and proud. I believe that is what is taking shape here as the future skyline of Sunway City,” concludes Cheng.