Building facades in Singapore can be bold or futuristic. The iconic Marina Bay Sands with its sailboat atop its three towers is one example. And then just adjacent to the Marina Bay Sands are dozens of skyscrapers that make up the city-state’s central business district.

But zoom out a little, just on the fringe of the central business district is Guoco Midtown, an integrated real estate development owned by GuocoLand, a Singapore-headquartered developer.

Guoco Midtown’s two blocks—an office tower and a residential building—with their mainly steel and glass exteriors stand out against the neighborhood's mix of office towers, malls, and reconstructed shophouses dating to the British colonial era.

GuocoLand Group CEO Cheng Hsing Yao is fine with this development sticking out. “Some people in the design team were very concerned the building didn’t look very interesting,” he remembers. “But I’m very confident in [something] simple. We don’t have to embellish because we’re not confident in our simplicity.”

In fact, Cheng thinks that simplicity helps the building stand out to those driving the expressway into Singapore’s central business district.

Guoco Midtown may not be the boldest, but it is packed. The integrated development boasts a 98% occupancy rate for its office tower, 63% of its completed residential building has been sold and a second residential building that's still under construction is almost sold out. Guoco Midtown's retail space is also fully leased.

“Boring is okay, you know?” Cheng says. The real estate CEO began in architecture school, but never became a practicing architect, instead going into urban planning with Singapore’s public service. 

Singapore-based GuocoLand is ranked No. 246 on Fortune’s Southeast Asia 500, which ranks the largest companies in the region by revenue. The developer debuted on Singapore’s stock exchange in 1978.

GuocoLand is owned by Guoco Group, a Hong Kong-listed holding company, which in turn is owned by Malaysian conglomerate Hong Leong Group.

Cheng joined GuocoLand in 2012, and took over as the real estate developer’s Group CEO in 2021. Before joining GuocoLand, Cheng was with the Urban Redevelopment Authority and Centre for Liveable Cities, urban planning agencies under Singapore’s Ministry for National Development.

Over 80% of its $1.36 billion revenue comes from Singapore. Yet the developer is also pushing into Malaysia and China. Guoco Changfeng City, its Shanghai mixed development, opened in 2021 and already enjoys 95% occupancy of its office space and full occupancy for its retail space.