BES Engineering Corp (中華工程) said it expects to obtain a use permit for a high-profile residential building in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) next month, which would allow it to launch a sales campaign and boost revenue in the second half of the year.
The company spent six years developing luxury home project Taozhu Garden (陶朱隱園) — reportedly Taiwan’s most expensive property selling at NT$6 million (US$199,867) per ping (3.3m2), twice the rate for apartments elsewhere in the neighborhood.
Structural engineer Chang King-le (張敬禮) on Thursday vouched for the building’s safety, telling reporters that the company used the “safest and strongest” building materials on the project, and it would survive fatal earthquakes and storms unharmed.
Photo: Hsu Yi-ping, Taipei Times
Core Pacific Group (威京集團) chairman Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京) “gave him a free hand” in pursuing structural safety and environmental friendliness, Chang said.
Core Pacific owns BES Engineering and a dozen other businesses.
The building materials are of the same grade as those used for Taipei 101, the Tokyo Skytree, Apple Inc’s headquarters and “nuclear power plants,” Chang added.
The company has not settled on a pricing strategy for the building, but the rumored NT$6 million per ping is not far-fetched, BES spokeswoman Vivian Cheng (程安慈) said.
“Mr Sheen has allowed his son to steer the group in recent years,” Cheng said. “He would like the highest prices possible for the apartments, even though he does not like to label them luxury homes.”
The 21-story complex offers 40 extravagant apartments of about 300 ping each and elevators that are large enough to lift sports cars, luxury furniture and collections, BES said.
The company is currently attaching 23,000 plants to the facade, which could absorb 130 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, making the complex more environmentally friendly, Cheng said.
The tower will no doubt be the most expensive residential complex in Taiwan when it comes on the market, Chinese-language Housing Monthly (住展雜誌) research manager Ho Shih-chang (何世昌) said.
The central bank has maintained credit controls on luxury housing of NT$80 million in Taipei and NT$40 million elsewhere to help stabilize the property market.
BES Engineering has NT$29 billion in civil engineering contracts on hand this year, including public construction works at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and the Shihmen Reservoir, and on the Taipei Mass Rapid Transit System and the Ministry of National Defense’s dormitories, Cheng said.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
Handset camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) on Sunday reported a 6.71 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for the third quarter, despite revenue last month hitting the highest level in 11 months. Third-quarter revenue was NT$17.68 billion (US$581.2 million), compared with NT$18.95 billion a year earlier, the company said in a statement. The figure was in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$17.9 billion, but missed the market consensus estimate of NT$18.97 billion. The third-quarter revenue was a 51.44 percent increase from NT$11.67 billion in the second quarter, as the quarter is usually the peak
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Pegatron Corp (和碩), a key assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, on Thursday reported a 12.3 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for last quarter to NT$257.86 billion (US$8.44 billion), but it expects revenue to improve in the second half on traditional holiday demand. The fourth quarter is usually the peak season for its communications products, a company official said on condition of anonymity. As Apple released its new iPhone 17 series early last month, sales in the communications segment rose sequentially last month, the official said. Shipments to Apple have been stable and in line with earlier expectations, they said. Pegatron shipped 2.4 million notebook