A mid​ strong demand growth in the Grade A office sector, a joint-venture agreement signing event was held at the Sofitel Phokeethra last week, establishing an investment company, provisionally called Kingdom Luxury Development Co, which aims to build a Grade-A office tower Phnom Penh.

The joint-venture signatories are Cambodia Properties Limited Ltd (CPL), which has 17 years’ local experience in the commercial, retail, residential and industrial sectors of the Cambodian real-estate market; TriAsia Group, which has wide-ranging local business interests; independent property investor Sor Thida; and architect and interior designer Lorenzo M Martini.

Cheng Kheng, CPL director and president of the Cambodian Valuers and Estate Agents Association, was one of the four signatories. He said he was honoured to be part of a consortium with so much collective experience in the property sector, and in building Grade-A office space in particular.

According to Kheng, it is currently a good time to invest in the construction sector in Cambodia due to strong demand for Grade-A office space. He added that the numbers of both personal and business investors that are active in Cambodia continue to rise.

“I’m happy to sign an agreement with both local and international companies for preparing Grade-A office construction project in Phnom Penh,” he said.

The joint venture plans to first commence construction of a 25-storey office tower in early 2015 on Norodom Boulevard. Covering an area of 78,000 square metres, and built at an estimated cost of $50 million of dollars, the plan is for the tower to be completed within three years.

According to the joint venture, the tower will include five floors of parking.

“Our Grade-A office space project will commence construction in early 2015 and will take three years to complete,” said Kheng. “Upon completion, investors will have their own office space that they can either use themselves or rent out.”

Kheng declined to comment on the exact location of the project, but confirmed it would be on Norodom Blvd. He added that the tower would include amenities such as massage, stream, sauna, a swimming pool and retail outlets.

He said the joint venture’s mission was ultimately to raise the bar in terms of not just commercial property development but also residential.

Sor Thida, an independent property developer and fellow signatory of the joint-venture agreement, said the commercial tower slated for construction on Norodom would not be too late to take advantage of Asean Economic Integration in 2015, because the majority of current office space was either Grade B or Grade C.

“Asean Economic Integration will require at least one or two years, so by the time construction is completed many investors will be flowing into Cambodia,” she said.

Tomoyuki Yokoi, CEO of TriAsia, a well-known name in Japan and a company that already has significant investments in Cambodia, said he was happy to be part of the joint venture in Cambodia because he saw a strong, emerging economy here, and his company can bring high construction standards to the market.

“My company is excited to be able to invest in Grade-A office space construction here,” said Tomoyuki, whose TriAsia Group operates in the Kingdom under the slogan “Made in Cambodia, Quality from Japan”.