Source : Straits Times - 16 Sep 2008
ONE of Singapore’s mega churches is raising its investment in a new lifestyle hub at one-north, where it will hold church services in the future.
Rock Productions, the business arm of the New Creation Church, said in a statement yesterday that it will double its investment in the project to a staggering $500 million, from the $280 million it had announced last year.
Rock Productions is partnering property bigwig CapitaLand to build the Integrated Civic, Cultural, Retail and Entertainment Hub at Vista Xchange, a futuristic complex with restaurants, shops, wine bars and a dance club.
CapitaLand will also raise its investment, but by only 25 per cent - roughly corresponding to the size of the increase in construction costs for the project. The property developer is now putting in $476.8 million, instead of the $380 million originally planned.
With the additional funds, the development will cost almost $1 billion to build now, up from the original budget of $665 million.
Part of this increase stems from higher construction expenses for the development, which have risen by more than 20 per cent, a CapitaLand spokesman said yesterday.
But Rock Productions is also upping its investment in order to take up more space.
It will own and manage the complex’s eight-level civic and cultural zone, which has been increased from 30,000 sq m to the current 38,000 sq m.
CapitaLand will take the other zone, a four-level retail and entertainment podium of more than 24,000 sq m. The developer will also have care of the roughly 900 carpark lots in the development.
It told The Straits Times yesterday that it will make its retail space ‘more productive’ to maintain its rate of return, given the additional costs. But it did not give details as to how it will achieve this.
Rock Productions was contacted yesterday about how it plans to fund the additional investment of $220 million but could not respond by press time.
According to New Creation’s website, the church has a congregation of 16,000. A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that the added investment works out to about $13,700 per church member.
The website states that the church has raised $41.5 million in funds for the Integrated Hub between Sept 16 last year and June 29 this year.
New Creation’s balance sheet as at March 31 last year lists $107.4 million in total equity.
The church will be the anchor tenant of a 5,000-seat state-of-the-art theatre that is the star of the Integrated Hub’s civic and cultural zone.
New Creation plans to hold its church services at the theatre every Sunday and possibly on one weekday night as well, it said on its website.
The church now conducts its services at the Rock Auditorium in Suntec City, which seats 1,400. There are four services every Sunday.
The civic and cultural zone will also feature secondary performance and event spaces, such as a multi-purpose function hall and an outdoor amphitheatre. This will turn it into a world-class venue for staging performances, shows and events, Rock Productions has said.
Rock Productions also owns and manages the Rock Auditorium in Suntec City and its adjoining Rock Gifts and Book Centre, as well Marine Cove, a recreational and restaurant cluster at East Coast Park.
The group’s shareholders are its well-known pastor Joseph Prince, another pastor Joshua Lee, and directors Matthew Kang and Jeannie Yeo-Yap.
Originally, the Integrated Hub was scheduled to be ready by 2011. Now, CapitaLand’s portion will be completed by end-2011, followed by Rock Productions’ zone in mid-2012.
The construction contract, worth about $633 million, was awarded to Hexacon Construction yesterday. JTC Corp awarded the 60-year lease for the land to Rock Productions for about $189
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