Decade-long Batam township project marks Tuan Sing’s magnum opus in Indonesia
Tuan Sing Holdings has set its sights on a decade-long masterplan project in Batam, Indonesia, called Opus Bay. The 125ha township development is the privately owned developer’s first major foray into the Indonesian market and will be launched in several phases over the next few years.
The masterplan architect for Opus Bay, billed as a fully integrated township development, is US-based architectural firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, which is internationally recognised for its expertise in large-scale masterplan projects.
The project will feature residences, meeting and exhibition facilities, hospitality elements, tourist attractions and recreation facilities. Future development phases will also include educational and medical facilities.
First sales phase launched
The first phase of the master plan includes the completion of three apartment blocks near the beachfront, a collection of private villas, a shopping galleria, a beachfront resident’s clubhouse and a renovated ferry terminal.
The first residential sales phase was launched on April 8 and the developer has released 381 apartment units and 51 villas for sale. The apartment units all come from a 559-unit, high-rise block comprising studios and two-bedroom units of 387 to 1,313 sq ft. The villa plots range from 2,583 to 8,288 sq ft, and buyers may opt to amalgamate neighbouring plots.
The apartments are designed by homegrown architects RT&Q, while the villas are designed by Singapore architects Ong&Ong.
According to the developer, apartment prices range from $80,000 to $240,000 and villas are priced from $330,000 to $950,000.
“We are very excited to launch Opus Bay, one of the largest integrated developments in Indonesia. We envision Opus Bay to be a smart city and an integrated community which serves as the perfect place for luxurious and affordable resortstyle living for locals, expats and travellers,” says William Liem, CEO of Tuan Sing Holdings.
He says that Singaporean buyers will find the development’s “urban resort-style waterfront living” attractive and the holiday homes affordable, while investors will have the chance to benefit from potential capital appreciation as the development expands as a tourism destination.
Tourism hub in Batam
Villas and apartments will not be the only buildings that greet the first batch of owners and investors when the first phase is completed in about four years. The developer says it is also on track to complete a new shopping galleria, resident amenities and entertainment locations to pull in visitors and tourists.
Tuan Sing is working with Mitra Adiperkasa, a leading Indonesian lifestyle retailer, to curate the retail offerings at Opus Bay. The developer is also looking to partner other retailers to launch international fashion, sports and lifestyle brands and F&B experiences at Opus Bay.
According to Francis Ngiam, assistant vicepresident of sales at Tuan Sing Holdings, the group plans to manage the various hospitality elements at Opus Bay through its own hospitality arm. “So far, the hospitality components planned for Opus Bay include serviced apartments. We also intend to develop and manage hotels there in the future,” he says.
Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Grand Hotel Group, Tuan Sing owns a pair of five-star hotels in Australia that are managed by Hyatt International. These are the Grand Hyatt Melbourne and the Hyatt Regency Perth.
Ngiam says that retaining ownership to curate the hospitality profile at Opus Bay is important for the group to realise its goal of turning the development into a tourism node in Batam.
Serviced apartments will be the first hospitality offering and will feature select apartment units among the three residential blocks. Tuan Sing will also offer a three-year “lease-back” scheme to owners that will contribute to the pool of units managed by the developer. Owners will then have the option of entering into a 10-year profit-sharing scheme with the developer managing their units.
About 50 villas out of the 277 villas expected to be built in the first phase will be kept by the developer to serve as short-term hospitality accommodation for visitors. Ngiam says that some of the supporting hospitality services such as laundry, landscaping and F&B could be extended to villa residents for a fee.
Self-sustaining township
Building up Opus Bay into a tourism node in Batam is critical in ensuring that the township will be able to sustain itself in the long run, says Ngiam.
“A key focus in our development plans is how we can drive visitor and tourism traffic once most international travel restrictions are lifted. This is why elements like the shopping galleria must feature in the first phase as pull factors,” he says.
Ngiam shares that there are plans in the pipeline to include a theme park within the project. “We are still exploring our entertainment options and will be working with new partners and vendors to provide suitable attractions or recreation concepts for Opus Bay,” he says.
By June this year, he hopes to set up a sales gallery in Jakarta to ramp up marketing and awareness efforts among Indonesian buyers. Meanwhile in Singapore, a sales gallery has been set up at 18 Robinson. Another sales gallery will be set up by July to showcase the studio and two-bedroom units that are up for sale.