Tishman Speyer Properties, a world leading owner, developer, operator and fund manager of first-class real estate yesterday acquired a 267,481-square-meter piece of prime Shanghai land.

The site in New Jiangwan Town in northeastern Yangpu District fetched a price of 6.752 billion yuan (US$933 million).

It is designated for mixed purposes, including commercial, residential and office, and has a total gross floor area of about 900,000 square meters.

The land was sold at its starting price - a per gross-floor-area price of 7,500 yuan per square meter - as the United States company encountered no competition, industry sources said.

"The final winner came as no surprise to me since a series of strict requirements announced earlier by the local housing and land resources administration bureau definitely barred all other interested developers, both from the country and overseas, from bidding," Xue Jianxiong, head of research at Shanghai Youwin Real Estate Services Co, told Shanghai Daily during a phone interview yesterday.

"It reflected the local government's high-end positioning of this project as Tishman Speyer has vast experience in top-notch commercial properties."

Major requirements for potential bidders included:

Owning and managing no less than five million square meters of commercial property;

Developing no less than two million square meters of comprehensive Grade A commercial and office space; and

Developing and managing no less than one million square meters of comprehensive commercial and office space above large metro hubs.

Tishman Speyer's landmark achievements include the Rockefeller Center and Chrysler Center in New York and City Point and Tower Place in London.

The New York-based company had earlier shown interest in a 13,709-square-meter prime-location plot in Shanghai which was eventually acquired by Shenzhen-listed Suning Universal Co Ltd in August at a record per-GFA price of 67,000 yuan per square meter.

Industry experts said the final per-GFA price yesterday might have an influence over future costs in the city.

"The sharp decline of land prices in the area could be viewed as a government stance to curb the overheated real-estate market," said an industry insider who declined to be identified.

(Shanghai Daily January 24, 2008)