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.
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