SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - Co-working operator JustCo is set to manage a Metro Holdings space in Asia Green in Tampines from the third quarter of this year.
In line with its asset-light strategy, JustCo signed a landmark agreement with T-Grand Property Holding, which owns and operates the property, leaving JustCo as manager of the space.
Asia Green, at 7 and 9 Tampines Grande, represents Metro Holdings' entry into Singapore's Grade-A decentralised office market. Its unit, Metrobilt Construction, entered into a 50:50 joint venture last year with an independent third party. Through their newly-incorporated firm, Ascend TGrande, both parties entered into a share-sale agreement with Golden Crest Holdings to buy all the shares of T-Grande Investment Holding, which in turn owns all the shares of T-Grande Property Holding.
The space managed by JustCo occupies about 30,000 square feet and is designed to optimise the sharing of spaces, assets and amenities by its occupiers, who will become part of the more than 100,000 members in JustCo's community, and so gain access to more collaboration and networking platforms.
Mr Kong Wan Sing, founder and chief executive of JustCo, said: "The signing is in tandem with our inclination toward an asset-light management model and reflects a paradigm shift in how landlords are retailing their real-estate spaces in view of customer demands for extremely versatile and flexible workspace solutions.
"With 30 per cent of global office inventory projected to become flexible by 2030, corporations are looking to landlords to offer more than just an empty office space."
Mr Leslie Lim, managing partner of Evia Real Estate and asset manager of Asia Green, said: "JustCo's expertise in workspace technologies and community management is complementary to Asia Green's roll-out of its Core + Flex leasing strategy, which provides its multi-national corporation tenant base the opportunity to quickly scale up their workspace requirements on demand.
"We are excited to on-board JustCo as part of the overall asset-enhancement initiative at Asia Green, to create a truly occupier-focused, energy-efficient, Green Mark Platinum, Grade-A building in the Tampines Regional Centre."
Correction note: An earlier version of this article stated that Asia Green occupied 30,000 square feet. It is in fact the space managed by JustCo that is 30,000 square feet.
