Developer collaborates with Starck for luxury residential project

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stori...363364/1/.html

Developer collaborates with Starck for luxury residential project

By Ng Baoying, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 28 July 2008 2132 hrs


SINGAPORE: Luxury-end private residences in Singapore are facing price pressures, and one developer hopes to get around that by having a famous brand-name designer work on its project.

Heeton Realty – a joint venture between Singapore developer Heeton Holdings and JP Morgan – is counting on the collaboration with a company co-founded by well-known French designer, Philippe Starck, to draw in the buyers.

It is hoping that this marketing strategy will help sales at its upcoming development that is located just outside the prime Orchard Road area at Grange Road.

Danny Low, COO & executive director of Heeton Holdings, said: "For people who want to buy a brand, it's like buying a Mercedes Benz. If you want to buy a brand, you don't care what the market is. You want to be the first to own it and you must remember that Philippe Starck is a worldwide-acclaimed name."

The 28-unit development will have its interiors, common areas and landscaping exclusively designed by a company co-founded by Philippe Starck.

The collaboration with the French designer is costing Heeton Realty more than US$2 million. But developer believes it will be able to sell its units at a 15 to 30 per cent price premium over other properties in the area, despite the current slow sales in the high-end residential sector in Singapore.

Heeton Realty said it has seen strong interest from at least two serious buyers at this stage.

The joint venture is also planning for more developments here in the year ahead.

Bryan Southergill, executive director and head of Asia Real Estate, Global Special Opportunities, JP Morgan, said: "There's been some consolidation recently. We've got a global credit crisis unfolding right now.

"But in the long term, with the IR (integrated resorts), gaming, Marina Bay, F1, and everything else Singapore has going for it, there will be strong and stable demand for projects."

Construction on the luxury residential project will begin late this year or early 2009.


- CNA/so

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/...89821,00.html?

Published July 29, 2008

Heeton project getting the Starck treatment

His firm will design interiors of Grange Rd property

By ARTHUR SIM


HEETON Holdings and its joint venture partner JPMorgan Global Special Opportunities Group will build the world's first Philippe Starck-branded housing in Singapore.

The project will be built on a site that the partners acquired last year at 74 Grange Road for $72.8 million.

The development, expected to be launched around year-end, will now come under the design, marketing and branding direction of Starck's yoo Inspired by Starck, a company co-founded with UK developer John Hitchcock in 1999.

While yoo has about 25,000 units of branded housing worldwide, it will not have an equity stake in 74 Grange Road. Nor will it be the architect.

Instead, it will provide interior design services and specifications for the interior finishes and fittings of the proposed 28-unit project.

It may provide landscape design, and buyers of the units may be offered furniture design packages for their homes.

The JV partners also hope to ride on yoo's marketing and public relations expertise, as well as draw on its pool of high net worth clients.

Heeton chief operating officer and executive director Danny Low said that yoo's services will cost about US$2 million, including the use of the 'yoo Inspired by Starck' brand.

The named of the development is yet to be finalised.

Mr Low added: 'This will be yoo's first residential design project in Singapore, and yoo's design services for the Singapore market will be exclusive to this project until mid-2009.'

Chris Boulton, CEO of yoo, said that it expects to announce more projects in the region soon. There are already yoo projects in Hong Kong and Phuket, Thailand.

Mr Boulton said that based on earlier projects, yoo developments can fetch 10-30 per cent more than market prices. According to him, yoo branding can help generate faster sales 'and sell in tough times'.

Prices for units at 74 Grange Road have not been confirmed. The break-even price was previously reported to be about $2,500 per square foot.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Money/St...ry_262270.html

July 29, 2008

Builder has designs on posh condo market

Heeton recruits style-setting design firm yoo for Grange Road apartments

By Joyce Teo

http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIM...AGES_JTYOO.jpg
STARCK SIMPLICITY: A showroom designed by yoo, the 'Prada of the property industry', inspired by its co-founder Philippe Starck. The firm was behind Hong Kong's JIA hotel and has other residential projects in Thailand and Taiwan. -- PHOTO: YOO

A COMPANY once famed for its wet markets is now rubbing shoulders with one of the world's trendiest firms in a bid to build Singapore's most chic condos.

Heeton Holdings has roped in yoo - a design-focused property firm co-founded by French style-setter Philippe Starck and British developer John Hitchcox - for its 74 Grange Road project.

It has also recruited investment bank JP Morgan, which will take a 45 per cent stake in the 28-unit condo.

But yoo does not come cheap. The 'Prada of the property industry' designed Hong Kong's JIA hotel and has hooked up with designers like Jade Jagger, daughter of Rolling Stone Mick.

Heeton is paying a flat fee of around $2 million, well over double the standard design fee, for the interior design of the units and the show suite, plus an undisclosed incentive bonus if yoo sells the units.

In return, yoo is offering a cutting-edge concept intended to draw buyers worldwide. 'This will undoubtedly set a new standard here. Our focus is to help developers achieve higher prices,' said yoo's London-based chief executive Chris Boulton. 'We do add value and ensure they sell in tough markets.'

Mr Boulton said that the firm's projects had achieved a premium of 10 to 30 per cent above market value by capitalising on innovative design and the yoo brand to drive more traffic towards the project.

'It's also about making more noise about the project' to raise its profile, he added.

Heeton's chief operating officer Danny Low said it recruited yoo to give the freehold condo an edge over others.

'The Singapore market is very competitive and buyers have become increasingly sophisticated. That is why we have to present a highly differentiated product for our targeted buyers, who are high-net-worth individuals and couples.'

These are the buyers who like spacious two-bedroom units of 1,600 to 1,800 sq ft or the two penthouses of 3,600 sq ft and 4,000 sq ft.

Heeton will meet yoo next week to discuss the design for the project.

This is yoo's first residential design job here and its services will be exclusive to Heeton until the middle of next year. It also has residential projects in Thailand and Taiwan.

The project will be launched late this year or early next year. Construction should start by the first quarter of next year.

Heeton declined to give a break-even price as it has yet to appoint a contractor. It bought Grange Court for $72.8 million or $1,706 psf per plot ratio, excluding development charge, in a collective sale last August.

Knight Frank, the sole marketing agent, helped introduce yoo to Heeton. Yoo's managing director for Asia, Mr Andrew Pang, used to work for Knight Frank.

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