Forging Connections

Chief Business Community Officer, CapitaLand, Mr. Chng Yi Ta draws on inquisitiveness and empathy to build interconnected communities for this modern age

- Zara Zhuang

B r i d g e+ was launched in the second half of 2017 as Ascendas-Singbridge’s first foray into the coworking space market that included players such as WeWork, The Working Capital and The Great Room. But it aspired to be something more than a shared workplace.

“We asked ourselves: If it was just another coworking space, what value does it add?” says CapitaLand Chief Business Community Officer Mr. Chng Yi Ta (formerly CEO, Business Community Development at Ascendas-Singbridge). “It’s important for us as Ascendas-Singbridge, because of the ‘bridge’ element, to build relationships and ties, so we extended that philosophy to our coworking space, and we said, the natural direction is community.”

This particular model took off: Bridge+ at Science Park Drive achieved full occupancy in March 2018, and a second venue in Singapore is set to open next year. Overseas, the Bridge+ international network spans the Singapore-Hangzhou Science & Technology Park, SIP Dushu Lake Science & Education Innovation District in Suzhou, Ascendas Innovation Place in Shanghai (with a second location in that city to launch in the months to come, one that is about 100,000sq ft), and a recently opened spot in International Tech Park Bangalore.