Nambawan Super to fight land lease

Papua New Guinea's largest superannuation fund, Nambawan Super was last Friday granted leave to appeal before the National Court against the decision of the Lands Minister to forfeit a State lease  it owned for 99 years.

The leave was granted pursuant to Section 142(2) of the Land Act 1996 for the plaintiff (Nambawan Super) to lodge an appeal in the National Court within 14 days.

NAMBAWAN SUPER'S NEW K60 MILLION OFFICE IN PORT MORESBY

Amidst the shortage of office space in Port Moresby, Nambawan Super is gearing up for a new A-grade standard commercial office development in which construction is being planned for mid 2010. The six-storey building which will have a key unique feature with a design that will be based on “Environmentally Sustainable Design" (ESD) principles or more commonly known as a “Green” building may become the first of its kind built in the country.

The new building to cost K60 million will be built alongside the Hubert Murray Highway opposite the Murray Barracks. The new office complex will include five levels of commercial office space, ground floor of lobby and retail space and two levels of basement parking.

The building design will include a central atrium running the full height of the building in order to enhance and provide natural daylight to all the office floors, as well as allowing fresh air circulation to improve indoor air quality and environment. The atrium also allows for interconnecting communications stairs between floors to enhance flexibility and connectivity of the office environment. Among other Environmentally Sustainable Design initiatives being considered in the building plan will be to incorporate extensive sunshading to the facades and developing a management system to manage all the building services systems such as the monitoring of energy use, and water recycling.

The total development will be 5500 square metres with each typical commercial office floor covering 1000 square metres. It is envisaged that the two floors will be occupied by Nambawan Super, and the remaining floors for other services and commercial offices. The Architect, and the design consultant team will soon be appointed to start work on the design of the office complex while tender for a builder is expected to be announced next year in order to select a builder to begin construction work. The total development which includes design, planning authority approvals, tendering and construction will take at least 29 months to complete and should be available for tenancy by early 2012.

ILLEGAL TAKEOVER OF PRIME LAND

Leading super fund Nambawan Super Ltd last week slammed the PNG Land Board's decision on three portions of prime State land in the National Capital as an "illegal process."

Managing Director Leon Buskens also refuted claims by the Land Board Chairman Friend Kini that Nambawan Super had not sent its representatives to make its presentations.

The POST-COURIER reported last Thursday that the Land Board had awarded three portions of land, worth about K30 million, to a subsidiary of Malaysian giant Rhimbunan Hijau (RH).

Nambawan Super Ltd was the most prominent applicant but Mr Kini said its tender applications for the land at Badili Hill and Koke heights were not considered because the super fund had failed to send it representatives to make presentations.

Mr Buskens has refuted claims by the Chairman of the Land Board that it did not send its representatives to the Land Board to make its presentations as "factually incorrect."

Mr Buskens said; "The fact is that we withdrew from the tender process due to what became apparent as an illegal tender process."