OPIC Provides $20 Million Loan for Office Building Project in Pakistan

(OPIC) WASHINGTON, D.C. – A $20 million loan from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) will finance the completion of a 28-story office building in Pakistan, helping the country to attract multinational investors by meeting an urgent need for top-quality office space. The property will feature several green building characteristics, including a natural-gas fired cogeneration power plant which will increase its energy efficiency and mitigate negative environmental impacts.

Project sponsor TPL Properties expects to complete construction of the Centrepoint office building in central Karachi in 2012, and will then begin leasing space to large local and multinational organizations. In the process, the project will provide new management and professional employment opportunities with benefits, including those specific to female employees. The building will be fully automated, with world-class IT and security systems.

“This office building will help Karachi meet a growing need for high-quality office space, creating professional jobs in the process and becoming only the second property in the city to offer services such as world-class IT and security systems,” OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield said at a signing ceremony in Washington. “We expect that its many green building features will encourage similarly environmentally-conscious construction in Pakistan.”

In addition to the cogeneration plant, the office space will feature an exhaust heat recovery system, air dehumidification using heating pipes, condensation collection for water usage, efficient lighting fixtures, and clean eco-friendly refrigerants used for air conditioning.

The U.S. sponsor of the project is Muhammed Ziaullah Khan Chishti, a U.S. citizen and an international IT-enabled services investor and operator.

The local sponsors TPL Holdings are also in the business of general insurance in Pakistan and is the leading provider of location based services in Pakistan and the Middle East.