Summit: Office space in Colombo to quadruple with Port City

Sept 21, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo office space will quadruple after the completion of the ongoing Port City development project, a Port City official said.

Chief Marketing Officer of CHEC Port City Colombo, Liang Thow Ming, said the existing office space inside Colombo city is around 220,000 square meters. He was speaking at the LBR LBO Infrastructure Summit 2016 themed “Realizing The Transformative Power of The Western Region Development: Opportunities and Challenges”. Ming said research showed that in the next 3 to 5 years this number is expected to double with the few upcoming developments in the city.







“Port City however will give 1.5 million squire meters, almost 4 times the size whatever you have right now,” Ming said.





“Though the physical dimension doesn’t seem that big, the amount of space is big; which is why we are not only targeted towards the Sri Lankan market alone.” He said the proposed Port City is about 70 percent of the size of Colombo 07 while 40 percent of the land in Port City will be used for public purposes. Ming said park spaces within the city are estimated as 45 hectares which is 3 times the size of the Galle face green.



The project also includes facilities like hotel and service apartment, theme park, medical health care, education facility and convention centre.

He said the Port City will be developed like the Marina Bay in Singapore where the average ambience temperature of the city is 1 to 2 degrees below the other parts of the Singapore City. “We are making Port City a walkable area with lot of landscaping and shelter walkways; probably the incorporation of some cycling kiosks along the way,” Ming said.

“Pedestrians will be considered the top priority inside new city followed by cyclists; personalized motor vehicles right at the bottom of the transport pyramid.” Under the first phase of the Port City development, which will span over 3 years with 1.4 billion US dollars of expected investment, 269 hectares of land will be reclaimed. The first part will also include the breakwater structure to protect the Port City.



The second phase will see investments mainly into the vertical development including the buildings and the entire remaining infrastructure.