Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) yesterday celebrated the opening of a new commercial tower in Taipei’s prime Xinyi District (信義) that at full occupancy could generate more than NT4 billion (US$134.13 million) in annual rental income.
Standing 272m tall, Taipei Nan Shan Plaza (台北南山廣場) is divided into three parts: seven floors of mixed-use mall space, 48 floors of offices, and a diamond-shaped entrance with a public cultural and art space.
Nan Shan Life won a 50-year lease contract from the Taipei City Government in 2012 to develop the skyscraper on the former site of the Taipei World Trade Center’s Exhibition Hall 2 for NT$26.8 billion (US$898.70 million).
The life insurer declined to comment on rents, but property firms have said the new complex has replaced Taipei 101 as the most expensive office space in Taiwan, with average rents of more NT$4,000 per ping (3.30579m2).
That figure might be NT$5,000 per ping on the top floors, international property broker Jones Lang LaSalle Taiwan said.
The complex has 193,843m2 of floor space divided over 48 stories and four basement floors, according to Nan Shan.
Tenants include international accounting firm Deloitte & Touche Taiwan, which occupies seven floors, or 8,000 ping of office space, Nan Shan communications officials said.
Upscale mall operator Breeze Center (微風廣場) has inked a 20-year lease to turn the mall space into its third department store in the district after Breeze Xinyi (微風信義) and Breeze Song Gao (微風松高).
That department store is due to open in the fourth quarter and will feature luxury brands and eateries, officials said, adding that restaurants would make up 35 percent of the mall’s floor space.
In addition, Breeze Center is to open a supermarket covering 2,222 ping in the plaza’s basement, making it the largest supermarket inside a department store in Asia, officials said.
Nan Shan Life has set up the entrance as a cultural and multi-purpose space, which is currently exhibiting art by physically challenged artists from Taiwan and Japan.
The building, the second-tallest in Taipei, might yield NT$4.6 billion in yearly rental income for Nan Shan, officials said.
As of March, the insurer managed assets of NT$4.15 trillion, with 10 million outstanding insurance policies and 6.1 million customer accounts, company data showed.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire. Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.” Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them. “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The
RSS