Competitive, creative, connected and in Central. That's how the owners of a new 25-storey office and retail tower in the heart of Hong Kong are pitching the latest addition to Central's real-estate landscape.
According to Pamfleet Hong Kong, Morgan Stanley and Gateway Capital, the consortium that bought the premises for HK$2.3billion, the Nexxus Building will be a standout leasing option for corporate and retail customers when completed in the third quarter of this year.
And the consortium has just revealed that the first tenant will be Fidelity Management & Research (FMR), the US entity of Fidelity Investments. FMR has leased nearly three floors of Nexxus as part of its expansion plans in Asia and will take possession later this year.
Situated on Connaught Road near the old Central Market, the building will initially offer direct access to the Hang Seng Bank Building, Exchange Square, IFC and - once new walkways are complete - the Mid-Levels escalator.
Pamfleet director Andrew Moore said the objective of a 'root and branch' restoration of the premises, which was built in 1962 and refurbished in 1992 by its previous owner, Hang Seng Bank, would turn 'an invisible building into a highly visible one'.
'It was almost an invisible building two years ago,' Mr Moore said. 'If you'd been asked to identify it a lot of people would not have been able to. One of our objectives was to take this 'invisible' building and make it very visible and connected - hence the name Nexxus - a point of connection. The building is all about connectivity and we put the extra 'x' into the name to emphasise that.