“Trophy buildings with large floor plates in Causeway Bay will be the new focus of the market and will draw more tenants,” said Paul Yien, the executive director for office leasing advisory at JLL, who has been an agent for 25 years.
The area is more well-known for shopping and dining than it is for office space. But Lee Garden Eight, a joint venture between Hysan Development – Causeway Bay’s largest commercial landlord – and Chinachem Group was expected to be finished next year. It will feature more than 1 million sq ft of office space and a floor plate that could be as large as 38,000 sq ft, the largest on Hong Kong Island.
Yien said he was confident in Causeway Bay because it is vibrant and bustling even on weekends and has a broader mix of tenants. JLL is the main agent for Lee Garden Eight.
“Causeway Bay is much more diverse in terms of tenants,” Yien said. “In Central it’s mostly banking and finance tenants, the hedge funds and private equity firms. In Causeway Bay, there are all sorts of different business sectors: security firms, accountants, lawyers, technology [companies], so we see them clustering there.”
In addition, the neighbourhood’s retail and dining options run the gamut from affordable to high-end, he said.
