Church collects $19m in one day for lifestyle hub

MEMBERS of the New Creation Church and their friends donated an average of $864 each one Sunday last month, netting the church a whopping $19 million for its upcoming multimillion-dollar lifestyle hub in Buona Vista.

The sum is believed to be the largest ever collected in Singapore in one single day and comes at a time when charities say donations are dipping, as the recession worsens and people are keeping their hands firmly in their pockets.

This, however, is not the first time the New Creation Church, an independent church led by Senior Pastor Joseph Prince, has collected such a staggering sum in one day. One Sunday in April last year, the church collected about $18 million during its first ‘Miracle Seed Sunday’.

The church declined to be interviewed, saying its affairs were ‘a personal expression of worship’.

But The Straits Times understands that ‘Miracle Seed Sunday’ is a day when the church’s members ’sow a seed, expecting miracles’.

Mr Prince declared during his sermons early last month that Feb 15 would be a ‘Miracle Seed Sunday’.

A record 22,000 people, including members and their friends, showed up on Feb15 for the church services and pledged $19 million. The proceeds are to go to the church’s new cultural and entertainment complex being developed by its business arm, Rock Productions.

Last September, Rock Productions told The Straits Times it had raised about a third of the $500 million it needed to build the complex. It is partnering property giant CapitaLand to build the close to $1 billion project, envisioned as a ‘futuristic complex with restaurants, shops and a 5,000-seat theatre’.

CapitaLand will own and manage the complex’s retail and entertainment zone. Rock Productions will own and manage the civic and cultural zone, which will house the 5,000-seat theatre to be used for the New Creation Church’s Sunday services.

Church members interviewed said they were happy to donate to the new complex. Bank executive Marcus Wong, 28, said: ‘It’s not compulsory. Whoever has the heart and wants to give can come forward to give. The building is for God, so we see it as an offering.’

When asked whether she thought the money should go to helping the poor instead of constructing a building, another church member, a businesswoman who declined to be named, replied: ‘I believe with the new building, we are giving to the kingdom of God, and God will be able to bless more people.’

The New Creation Church is one of the fastest- growing churches in Singapore. It was founded here in 1984 by a group of young Christians and has grown from 25 believers to more than 18,000 members today. It had an income of $55.4 million during its last financial year.

Source : Straits Times – Mar 2009

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CapitaLand’s one-north investment costs more

CAPITALAND yesterday said that its investment in one-north hub will now cost $476.8 million – up from $380 million announced in September 2007 – because of rising construction costs.

 

CapitaLand will own and manage a retail and entertainment zone called the hub at Vista Xchange at JTC’s one-north.

Partner New Creation Church’s Rock Productions, which will own and manage a civic and cultural zone, will invest $499.5 million in that project – up from $280 million announced last year.

Rock’s increase is partly due to a planned increase in gross floor area (GFA) at the civic and cultural zone.

The zone will now have a GFA of 38,000 square metres, up from ‘over 30,000′ sq m announced previously.

The new investment figures mean that the hub will now cost $976.3 million, up from $660 million announced in September 2007.

CapitaLand and Rock yesterday said that they have awarded a $633 million contract for construction of the hub to Hexacon Construction Pte Ltd.

The project is expected to be completed by mid-2012.

CapitaLand said that despite the higher cost, its projected return will remain the same.

‘We have enhanced our asset plan and are thus still able to achieve our target rate of return,’ a spokesman told BT.

Shares of CapitaLand, Singapore’s largest developer, continued to take a beating yesterday on various concerns – news of the increased investment, worry over the developer’s exposure to China and a plunge in the Singapore stock market.

CapitaLand lost as much as 28 cents or 6.5 per cent. It ended the day 26 cents down at a one-year low of $4.03.

Like other developers, CapitaLand has seen its stock price sink as warnings about China’s property market emerged over the past few weeks.

China’s market could be headed for a ‘meltdown’ as home prices and sales slump, Morgan Stanley analysts said on Sept 12.

Developers including China Vanke, the nation’s biggest publicly traded real estate developer, and Poly Real Estate Group have reported falling sales amid government lending curbs.

‘Investors are a bit jittery about the forecasts,’ CIMB property analyst Donald Chua said yesterday.

CapitaLand’s shares have fallen 8 per cent since end-August, while Keppel Land’s stock has fallen 16.2 per cent in the same period.

Keppel Land lost as much as 28 cents or 8.1 per cent yesterday. The stock closed 19 cents down at $3.25 – also a 52-week low.

Source : Business Times –  Sep 2008

 

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$660 million lifestyle hub to go up at Buona Vista – 5,000-seat theatre, shops part of Rock Productions, CapitaLand project

COME 2011, a futuristic-looking lifestyle hub with a 5,000-seat theatre, restaurants, shops, chill-out wine bars and even dance clubs will emerge in Buona Vista.

Property giant CapitaLand and a church-linked business company, Rock Productions, announced yesterday that they will jointly develop an integrated complex in Singapore’s one-north science hub at a cost of $660 million.

CapitaLand’s share of the proposed development, including the ownership of about 1,000 carpark lots, will be about $380 million.

Rock Productions – the business arm of the 16,000- strong New Creation Church – will invest $280 million.

The complex, which will be connected directly to the Buona Vista MRT station, will be sited within the 17ha Vista Xchange, the business service centre as well as lifestyle and cultural hub of one-north.

Designed by Mr Andrew Bromberg of Aedas Hong Kong, it will have eight levels of civic and cultural space, and four levels of retail and entertainment space.

The project came about after JTC Corporation last Friday awarded Rock Productions the tender to build, lease and operate an integrated civic, cultural, retail and entertainment hub at Vista Xchange on a 60-year lease at a land price of $189 million.

Rock Productions had spoken to a few partners and decided on CapitaLand, which entered into an agreement through its indirect wholly owned subsidiary One Trustee to acquire the hub’s retail and entertainment zone, which has a gross floor area of more than 24,000 sq m.

CapitaLand Retail will also manage the entire development of the integrated hub.

It is proposing an open concept for the retail and entertainment zone, which will be spread over two floors above the ground and two basement levels. The basement levels will house chic tenants that will include restaurants, cafes, thematic dance clubs, a concept food hall and a gourmet supermarket.

CapitaLand Retail chief executive officer Pua Seck Guan said the zone presents a unique opportunity for CapitaLand to extend its presence to the Buona Vista area.

The zone will cater to the affluent crowd from the nearby Bukit Timah, Holland and Rochester Park areas, as well as the visitor catchments from the one-north communities, surrounding estates and tertiary institutions, he said.

Rock Productions will own and manage the hub’s civic and cultural zone, which has a gross floor area of 30,000 sq m. This zone will have a 5,000-seat state-of-the-art theatre designed by world renowed performing arts facility design consultants Artec Consultants and Bromberg.

Among Artec’s best-known projects are the Lucerne Culture Centre in Switzerland and the concert hall and opera theatre at the Esplanade here.

Rock Productions has engaged IMG Artists, a global performing arts management company, to work on the marketing and programming efforts for the zone.

A major tenant has already been secured.

New Creation Church, which now holds its services at The Rock Auditorium at Suntec City, will be the anchor tenant of the theatre, using the space on a large part of Sundays and one mid-week night, said Rock Productions director Matthew Kang.

Rock Productions also owns and manages The Rock Auditorium and Marine Cove, the recreational and dining establishment at East Coast Park.

Source : Straits Times – Sept 2007

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