An office building under construction on Phnom Penh's Monivong

Boulevard  is offering tenants an early-bird discount to sign on ahead

of completion

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An artistic rendering of the VTRUST Office Center currently under construction on Monivong Boulevard.

PRIME NUMBERS

VTRUST Office Center Monivong

• Building type Office/commercial
• Address 705-707 Monivong Boulevard Sangkat Boeung Keng Kang III Chamkamon District, Phnom Penh
• Property manager: VTRUST Property
• Architect: Five-Arc Architecture Co
• Sales manager Opus
• Floors 8 plus rooftop
• Floor Space 1080 square metres
• Usable Area 987 square metres per floor
• Floor Usage
  • Ground floor street level: Parking
  • Ground floor upper: Reception
  • First floor: Park Cafe and fitness center
  • Floors 2-7: Offices
  • Rooftop: Terrace and common areas

• Access 4 elevators, staircase, emergency external stairs
• Scheduled opening First quarter 2009
• Lease terms Three year minimum

Discounted rentals are available in an eight-storey office building currently under construction on Phnom Penh's Monivong Boulevard for organizations willing to take over an entire floor and sign on before construction is complete.

Phillip Butler, managing director of Opus, which is managing sales for property management company VTRUST Property, said he was targeting embassies, aid organisations, NGOs and multinational companies with the scale to take over one or more floors. "We are not marketing small units," he told Prime Location.

Construction began on the VTRUST Office Center Monivong building in late 2006 and the building is slated to top out in the first quarter of 2009. The discounted rate comes on the condition the tenants meet the costs of partitioning and decorating their office spaces. They will be free to design the spaces according to their needs.

"We are offering options now that won't be there when it is complete," Butler said. "We have a lot of interested parties."

The asking rental once the building is fully outfitted will be US$20 per square metre per month, which works out to $19,740 for the 987 square metres of usable space on each floor.

Businesses willing to sign a lease of at least three years and meet outfitting costs can sign up for just $13,500 a month, or around $13.70 a square metre. Those that require the office space to be delivered in a more ready-to-occupy state can snap up the space for just $16,500 a month provided they are willing to take on responsibility for the final decorative touches.

Easy access

The new office is in a prime location on Monivong Boulevard between Mao Tse Toung Boulevard and Street 360, in the center of Phnom Penh's dispersed business and aid organization district.

"It doesn't get traffic jams like other places but its close to the main routes," Butler said.

Opus is marketing the property on behalf of Cambodian property management company VTRUST Property.

Managing director Kuy Vat said the property was being built by a local construction company under the supervision of the land's owner, whose name was given only as Mr Serei.

It was designed by Khuy Py of local arcitecture group Five-Arc Architecture Co. It will have six floors of office space, a Park Cafe restaurant and fitness center on the first floor, a business centre in the lobby and a rooftop terrace and bar. All public areas will have free wifi.

"It is going to be as a good a standard as is being offered anywhere in Phnom Penh," Kuy Vat said.

However, construction experts spoken to by Prime Location have cast doubt over whether the building will be delivered on time given progress to date and the slow pace of construction in Cambodia.

One, who asked not to be named, said a general rule of thumb is that once a building's shell is complete, at least one month needs to be set aside per floor for outfitting. The building was not even close to that stage, he said.

A VTRUST representative said the pace of construction was managed by the landlord, but that the company could step in with its own construction team if necessary. The landlord, Mr Serei, could not be reached for comment.

VTRUST also owns and operates the fledgling Park Cafe restaurant chain, operates three serviced apartment buildings in Phnom Penh and manages the VTRUST Office Center in the Parkway Square Building on Mao Tse Toung Boulevard.

Kuy Vat said the company would look to take over management of other office buildings in Phnom Penh in the future, but as yet had no concrete plans. "We're taking it one-by-one," he said.