Tenants busy moving in to Portside ahead of Papua LNG
The Portside Business Park is quickly moving from blueprint to reality. Alan Heyns, CEO of Steamships Property Division, gives Business Advantage PNG an update on the major development outside Port Moresby.
The Portside Business Park is a 20-minute drive northwest of Port Moresby, in a key growth corridor between the capital and ExxonMobil’s LNG plant. Credit: Steamships
The Portside Business Park in Motukea is quickly taking shape, with four warehouses completed, water and power installed, and the first tenants “taking occupancy,” according to Alan Heyns, CEO of the park’s developer, Steamships Property Division.
“With the core infrastructure completed, we are well positioned to service the imminent extractives projects,” Heyns tells Business Advantage PNG, in reference to Papua LNG and other major resources projects which are pending final investment decisions (FIDs).
“You don’t want to be running around fixing what’s broken when there is business to be done.”
The early tenants include businesses from the fast-moving consumer goods sector, according to Heyns.
Additionally, businesses serving the extractives sector are “taking up the well-positioned and highly secured laydown space which although in short supply, Portside has in abundance,” he says. “We’ve designed Portside Business Park with EPC consultation to best cater for contractors’ project needs.”
Commercial centre awaits approval
A render of what Portside Business Park could look like once complete. Credit: Steamships
Construction will continue within the 38-hectare business park, with a commercial centre currently awaiting regulatory approvals. The blueprints for the centre include a small supermarket, food and wholesale outlets, and some office space. “We already have very strong interest in that offering,” Heyns says.
There was a particularly strong investment case for the commercial centre, given Portside’s location in a population growth corridor. The park sits beside the Motukea international port, on the road between Port Moresby and ExxonMobil’s LNG plant at Caution Bay.
“Napa Napa is an under-serviced area,” Heyns says of the area, which is about a 20-minute drive northwest of central Port Moresby.
Wider portfolio
Beyond Portside, Steamships is proceeding with premium commercial office space and top-tier residential additions to its Port Moresby portfolio, where it sees strong demand continuing – regardless of the timeline for Papua LNG. “We haven’t hung everything on the FID,” Heyns says.
However, optimism around Papua LNG has prompted Steamships to strengthen backup power and water systems across its portfolio.
“You don’t want to be running around fixing what’s broken when there is business to be done,” notes Heyns.