While it is important to focus on maintenance, tenant satisfaction is equally crucial in the making of a successful office tower, says Tower REIT CEO Noorbaizura Hermeyney. Tower REIT owns Guoco Tower in Bukit Damansara, Kuala Lumpur.

“We want to continue to be sought after by tenants despite the age of the building and having more new office towers coming up [in the area]. We believe good property management has helped us to position the tower as the office building of choice. We put everything in order, while managing things proactively,” she says.

“We want to meet the satisfaction of the tenants, to make sure that they are happy to stay here … it is about both the hardware and software. Rates will be competitive, but tenants always want to stay for the long term and that long-term factor is about how comfortable and satisfied they are with the building.”

Guoco Tower is the Gold winner in the Below 10 years Single-owned Office in a Mixed Strata category.

Part of the RM2.5 billion Damansara City development, the 19-storey premium-grade office tower is Green Building Index (GBI)-certified, Gold Leed  2009 for Core & Shell development-accredited and is a designated MSC Malaysia Cybercentre.

Its net lettable area is 236,500 sq ft, with each floor contributing about 14,000 sq ft. The anchor tenants include British American Tobacco Malaysia, Dentsu Holdings Malaysia Sdn Bhd, AECOM Perunding Sdn Bhd and GuocoLand Malaysia Bhd.