Grade A offices are generally viewed as buildings with the highest quality in the market, with top-notch infrastructure, built with materials of the finest quality, well managed and strategically located. One building that ticks all the boxes is Menara Prudential.

Located in Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), the upcoming financial district of Kuala Lumpur, Menara Prudential was the first office tower there to be completed and occupied, in May 2019. The builder and owner of the 27-storey purpose-built office tower is Fairview Valley Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of IJM Corp Bhd, while the anchor tenant is Prudential Group of Companies. Knight Frank Property Management Sdn Bhd (KFPM) has been the building manager since day one.

As a Grade A, LEED Gold and MSC-certified commercial building, Menara Prudential has incorporated many sustainable features and design details, such as a rainwater harvesting system, the use of low-emissivity glass and materials to reduce building heat and increase indoor environmental quality, as well as an artificial intelligence (AI) building management system to monitor and optimise the lighting and temperature.

“To build a Grade A office is one thing, to maintain the building at Grade A standard after the handover is the real deal. Our task is to make sure everything [in the building] is as good as on the first day of handover and to provide good service to our tenants. We take pride when we receive compliments from tenants that the building is as good today after three years as on the first day of moving in,” says KFPM senior executive director Kuruvilla Abraham.

Menara Prudential is the Gold winner in the Below 10 Years Non-strata Office category.

Menara Prudential is a purpose-built office tower with a total net floor area of about 413,256 sq ft and a large floor plate, column-free office space. Each unit has a built-up of 20,000 to 22,000 sq ft. The office floors are on levels 9 to 26. and parking spaces are on levels three to seven, at the podium. There is also a custom-built multi-purpose hall to hold functions and training programmes, a clinic and a retail kiosk.

The building is currently 81% occupied, mainly by the anchor tenants, Prudential and TRX City Sdn Bhd, the master developer of TRX.

“The outbreak of Covid-19 has certainly interrupted our progress to lease out the remaining space in Menara Prudential. Many interested tenants put their plans on hold until recently. Some of them are revisiting the building and the leasing deal. We believe that very soon, we will be welcoming some new tenants,” says IJM deputy CEO and deputy managing director Lee Chun Fai.

The current occupancy rate of 81% is well above the average occupancy rate of similar buildings in the new and old central business district of KL, which is 67.1%, he points out. While the pandemic affected the take-up of space, Lee assures that the day-to-day operations and quality of building management and maintenance was not affected as the team is running the building with surplus operating expenditure (opex), thanks to innovative and energy-saving building features, accurate budgeting and good rent collection rate.

The current rent is RM9 psf, which includes the maintenance fee. The rental of offices is undertaken by the building owner, and KFPM’s role is collection of rents and budgeting to ensure a smooth process.

Kuruvilla says the rent collection rate at Menara Prudential is healthy, even if there is a slight delay in payment for about 10% of its tenants. However, most of them pay the rent rent within 30 days of the invoice date, even during the pandemic.

“We have a proper payment monitoring system to ensure all invoices and bills, especially electricity, water and assessment, are received on time. Upon receiving the invoices and bills, the KFPM site team checks and verifies the invoices with the relevant supporting documents before submitting them to the building owner for preparation of payment. We have a payment tracking checklist to record all the invoices received to date, and they are monitored closely by KFPM’s finance manager at its headquarters,” he says.

As for budgets, KFPM prepares a yearly opex and proposed capital expenditure (capex) for building enhancement work, based on the findings of the annual building audit by its team of specialists and the site’s technical team.

“While good design is essential to a green building, the actual operation and maintenance also have very significant effects on the building’s overall long-term environmental impact and the health, safety and comfort of the occupants. We use insights gained from engagement with our tenants and the data the building generates to interact, learn and adapt to changing needs and conditions,” says Lee.

For example, during the pandemic-induced lockdowns, the occupancy rate was 50% as most of the building’s occupants were working from home. One of the building’s chillers was turned off due to the low heat load. The initiative helped to reduce energy consumption, and lower it’s carbon footprint.

“This building has been future-proofed. Many features have been put in place as early as the project planning stage for cost- and time-effectiveness, easy and long-term management, as well as to reduce our carbon footprint, such as movement sensors for lighting and water taps, auto sleep mode for the lifts and a rainwater harvesting system to supply water for landscape irrigation and common washrooms on level two,” says Lee.

Meanwhile, IJM constantly reviews the performance of the building in terms of its hardware and software, as well as the quality of management and maintenance.

For example, to provide the safest working environment for its tenants during the Covid-19 outbreak, IJM decided to further enhance the building’s facilities at its own cost. The measures included installing UV Clean Air units that kill 99% of airborne bacteria and viruses in all passenger lifts; UV Ultra Pro units on escalator handrails to kill germs on the surface; double high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters for all air-handling unit (AHU) rooms; and ionisers and auto dilution, with fresh air from outdoors.

“During the pandemic, we opened about 100 parking bays for free for tenants who needed to work in the office, so they did not have to park their cars far away when the area was so quiet during lockdown. It is not a big deal, but it is something we could do to make sure the occupants were safe whenever they needed to work from the office,” says Kuruvilla.

IJM is planning to apply for the green electricity tariff from Tenaga Nasional Bhd once it is available for subscription. The building owner is also looking to add EV charging ports in the parking lot.

“The idea was actually proposed by Prudential. By subscribing to the green electricity tariff, the tenants would have to pay more for their power usage, but it would be a contribution to a better environment, and they are committed to doing so,” says Lee.

“Thus, when they brought up the idea, we liked it, as carbon footprint reduction was one of our core focus areas when designing the project. We are happy and able to cover the extra power bill, which is estimated at an extra RM20,000 per month, for power usage in the common areas of the building.”

He stresses that at IJM, sustainability is one of the core elements of its strategic agenda. The team has been on a journey of continuous improvement, embedding sustainability in the company’s culture, operations, services and products.

“Being recognised at The Edge Malaysia Best Managed & Sustainable Property Awards 2022 is a testament to IJM’s commitment to developing high-quality property assets and adopting sustainable best practices in our building design, development and management,” says Lee.

“This award also highlights our focus on building a culture of sustainable practices that benefit our clients, the community and the country. Promoting sustainable built environments is not an option, but a requirement.

“Moving forward, we wish to work with like-minded partners to bring a positive change to the sector, as well as to increase the awareness of the importance of quality property management to building owners, occupiers and the industry.”

Kuruvilla adds, “One cannot stress enough the importance of quality property management, which plays a key role in increasing, or at least maintaining, the investment value of the building. This is always on the mind of KFPM’s property managers, who make every effort to maintain high occupancy and have effective cost control.”