MRCB of the KL Sentral monopoly has teamed up with Office supremo Quill to build a Grade A office in a slim patch between the Le Meridien hotel and future St.Regis hotel.
This is a star location considering the upcoming developments in already very congested KL Sentral. Opposite this project is the KL Sentral Park retail outlets which is nearing completion. Accessibility is however expected to be a nightmare with KL Sentral roads and access roads already heavily congested and public transport being a sham in this sham of a transport hub in Kuala Lumpur.
However, I believe despite the weakening market, Grade A offices are in demand in central locations including KL Sentral. This is despite many large corporations starting to move out to the suburbs such as Damansara Perdana, Uptown and Shah Alam. But I think MRCB and Quill has the right strategy by carving out their office suites into bite sizes for those small to medium sized companies looking for a posh address.
The above plan is typical for most floors with sizes around 1200sf-ish... And priced from RM1500psf, it is quite affordable to house about 10 to 20 employees in under and around RM2million. The cheapest office unit is peddled around RM1.6million, which is 1066sf. The corner units and those facing the Lake Gardens are priced slightly more. In terms of Feng Shui, one should really have the Lake Gardens view as the KL Sentral side includes a breath-taking view of the Sungai Besi Chinese Cemetery where the famous Mr. Yap Ah Loy, the founder of Kuala Lumpur (*depends whose history you believe in) is interned.
The launch this weekend is expected to be quite hot. This is because, MRCB has cleverly marketed the starting price as from RM420k onwards. This is not at all deceiving because you can snap up one of the so-called "Business Suites" at around RM500k per pop. Still at RM1,500psf, this sounds like a bargain except that you are staring at a small 300-ish square foot office with no windows. These tiny offices are located on the 30th to 32nd floors only and they basically occupy the center void of these floors as my very poorly blurred photos below illustrate:
That's just my opinion....
Despite what anybody might say about these windowless units, in my opinion there aren't many of them... only about 20 units per floor. And it should be quite easy to find tenants among small start-ups or overseas rep offices to pay RM2000 to RM3000/month to rent them. It should not cost a lot to furnish them too. This is all to get the famed KL Sentral address and enjoy the this very trendy sky-garden somewhere on the 13th or 14th floor.
MRCB has failed miserably with their Plaza Sentral. The management sucks, the place is dirty and things falling apart. However, they are smart to partner Quill. With Quill's reputation as an experienced office player, this is very hard to go wrong.
That's just my opinion....
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