In rapidly prospering Cambodia, different central zones have sprouted up to cater to the growing number of banks, financial institutions, and office buildings entering the market.

The Phnom Penh City Center (PPCC) ventures forth to become the capital city’s first and only Central Business District (CBD). Encompassing an overall ease of convenience, PPCC will be the unsurpassed CBD that proffers thoroughly designed accessibility with multiple entry points, as well as traffic and drainage systems of global standards.

Its prime location places it strategically in the heart of the city – as illustrated in the map – and spans over 111.6 hectares of open space. Playing up the urban direction that Phnom Penh is heading towards at breakneck speed, PPCC will be a vast space of futuristic and metropolitan buildings.

“PPCC will definitely be the capital’s new business and financial district, but it will also be more than that. We are not in the business of selling individual building concepts; what we are selling is an integrated and liveable city, with carefully thought-out urban planning of international standards, guided by structured development codes.”

“PPCC will essentially be the capital of Phnom Penh,” Shukaku Inc.’s CEO Michelle Lau said.

PPCC will create opportunities for local and multinational companies across varied industries – financial, retail, commercial, residential, educational, hospitality, medical, and entertainment.

While traffic congestions continue to plague Phnom Penh, PPCC is working towards enhancing the accessibility of its district by providing eight entry access points coming from many directions within the capital, resulting in a more streamlined and fluid inner city system.

As of current, the construction of permanent roads and infrastructure has commenced, with the project’s first phase slated for completion in 2017 and subsequently in 2019.

According to Elamaren Kottoyan, Shukaku’s deputy head of project management and construction, “22 percent of PPCC’s total land area is also dedicated to public roads, therefore enhancing mobility. Most importantly, our roads are also built with cycling and walking paths alongside some of them in order to provide our residents and tenants a green and walkable city.”

He added: “We will be laying 16 kilometers of underground cabling system that will house all utility services away from the public eye around the whole project.”

Come 2035, Phnom Penh’s most comprehensive precinct will house over 56,000 residents and approximately 200,000 daily visitors.

AN INTEGRATED TOWNSHIP COMMUNITY

Shukaku prides itself in being not just a property developer, but also a master developer and an urban planner.

“My vision is to bring a livable city to the people in Phnom Penh through integrated urban planning,” Lau stated.

PPCC’s master plan will incorporate a comprehensive approach to building and maintaining its integrated township.

This entails the focus on setting up meticulous infrastructure systems – one which includes the enactment of an underground cabling system that keeps electricity cables and sewage pipes underground. Creating a clean look is imperative in ensuring maintenance that is hassle-free and away from the public eye.

With various towers ranging from 20 meters to 150 meters high, PPCC will be a landscape of the latest and sleekest architectural buildings.

Exterior notwithstanding, PPCC is now in the midst of its most vital feature yet – a highly functional drainage system that will mitigate flooding during rainy seasons.

Besides the residential and other mixed-use arenas, the city centre of Cambodia’s future will be home to a sports complex and an accompanying café for all hungry and thirsty active players. The sports complex will also be in proximity to the center’s pedestrian green belt – sidewalks framed by lush greenery – that will enable the community to enjoy leisure walks and hassle-free family days out at the 22,000 sqm central park.

Designed with the community in mind, the Central Park has zoned areas for family and leisure activities and mixed-use facilities. Features such as an open stage or open air cinema, an event plaza, a sunken botanic garden, water features, and a picnic lawn will be soon a familiar sight in a densely populated city centre.

To encourage community participation and inclusivity, PPCC organized a nationwide Street Furniture Design Competition between August and September 2015. Over 100 students in the fields of architecture, urbanism, construction and design from nine universities submitted their design concepts of how they thought public spaces could be best used without compromising on innovativeness yet benefiting people from all walks of life.

The design concepts of the grand prize winner, Lim Yonghuort, an architectural graduate from the Royal University of Fine Arts, will be incorporated into the final installation at the Central Park.

For golfing enthusiasts, the end of this year will see the construction of PPCC’s driving range completed.

ADOPTING A SUSTAINABLE APPROACH TO JOB CREATION

Adopting a pioneering inclusive and sustainable approach to development in Cambodia, PPCC has been dedicating itself to benefiting the Cambodian community as a whole; as a platform to bountiful global business opportunities, as well as a continued engagement with vocational training institutions.

Last August, Shukaku Inc. thus entered a partnership with the Don Bosco Foundation – an educational non-profit organization that provides technical skills and know-hows free of charge to young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds – paving the way for a two-year sponsorship worth more than $69,000.

This involves two-year scholarships for 20 Don Bosco students, and also PPCC setting up a technologically savvy and advanced computer lab for Don Bosco.

The sponsored students will, at the end of their graduation where they receive an associate degree, have the opportunity to either be an intern or an employee at PPCC or any of PPCC’s many business partners.

The partnership falls under Shukaku’s new “Sustainable Growth Initiative”, the company’s comprehensive community engagement and empowerment program aimed at making a tangible contribution to the communities in which it operates.

“We are striving to build a collective vision through various and long-term income-generation initiatives. This is also how we aim to shape a future of shared prosperity and help Cambodia transform to meet the demands of the 21st century,” Lau concluded.