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There will also be serviced residences and retail space, says CapitaLand

OFFICES and small office, home office (SoHo) units will be the main components in the new project CapitaLand is building on the former Selegie Complex site.

There will also be some serviced residences and retail space. The project, being built on a 7,000 square metre site at the foot of Mount Sophia, is slated for completion in 2008.

A CapitaLand spokeswoman said: ‘The Selegie site will be redeveloped into a vibrant integrated lifestyle hub within the new Singapore Arts, Culture, Learning and Entertainment precinct.’

Selegie Complex was part of the portfolio of the former Pidemco Land, which in 2000 merged with DBS Land to form CapitaLand. Pidemco is said to have acquired Selegie Complex when it bought Urban Development Management Company, which had owned the property, in 1995 as part of a reshuffling of assets within its parent Temasek Holdings.

It was reported in 2004 that the Selegie Complex site had about 65 years left of its original 99-year lease. Market watchers reckon CapitaLand would have had the lease topped up to the original 99 years by now, or at least that it would be in negotiations on the matter.

The CapitaLand spokeswoman said that the office units in the new development will be intended for business schools, professional consulting firms, trading companies and creative services operations, while the SoHo units will be pitched at professionals and those in the creative industry, in addition to students from overseas.

The project’s retail concept will target young, trend-setting individuals studying, working and living nearby. ‘Trendy pubs and alfresco cafes will offer cool hangouts, while the shop units will showcase eye-catching designs and a unique retail offering with differentiating identities,’ the spokeswoman said.

Source : Business Times - 23 Feb 2006

The days of the Singapore Tennis Centre along the East Coast Parkway may be numbered.

The landmark site, which has been occupied by Singapore Tennis Centre Pte Ltd for almost 30 years and includes the Long Beach Seafood Restaurant - is being auctioned off by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) on Tuesday.

Although STC managing director Liu Sung Tao says it will bid for the site, the 72-year-old veteran of the local tennis scene will have to compete with contenders who may have more financial muscle.

‘As a founder of this 30-year-old business, I certainly hope we can have a chance to continue to run it,’ Mr Liu told BT. ‘I sincerely hope interested bidders can be sensible on their prices, otherwise our well-known Singapore Tennis Centre brand name may disappear from East Coast Park.

‘What I am worried about is inexperienced people who may come up with an unreasonably high bidding price and then, after one or two years, when they find things difficult, may abandon it.’

STC was popular up to the early 1990s, when tournaments were held there. But its attraction has since waned, according to a seasoned industry player.

Mr Liu plans to bring in former Asian tennis star turned sports commentator and entrepreneur Vijay Amritraj, now based in Los Angeles, to run a tennis academy if he wins the bid.

China-born Mr Liu, who was involved in the textile industry in Cambodia and Singapore before opening Singapore Tennis Centre in 1977, lamented that SLA turned down his request for an automatic extension of his lease as a sitting tenant. Instead, he was told he would have to compete with other bidders at an auction for a chance to continue operating at the location.

SLA’s current policy for commercial - including recreational - sites is not to extend leases upon expiry but to conduct an open and transparent tender or auction.

STC leased the site in 1975 for 15 years, after which it exercised an option for a further 15 years. When the second term expired in July last year, SLA granted STC a temporary occupation licence pending an auction.

Mr Liu said he spent $1.5 million developing the tennis courts and clubhouse during the initial 15-year term, and a further $6 million in the second term on an adjacent recreational centre. He said he has yet to recoup his investment, after factoring in the opportunity cost of selling three freehold properties to help finance the STC venture.

He sold a bungalow at Grange Road for about $370,000 in the 1970s to invest in the first phase of STC. It would have been worth about $6.2 million today, he says. Then in the 1990s he sold two apartments in the Balmoral area for about $900,000 each to invest in STC’s Phase 2 development.

SLA is offering the property - with a land area of 174,290 sq ft and an estimated gross floor area (GFA) of 67,339 sq ft - for three years starting Sept 1, 2006, with a renewal option for two further terms of three years each.

The property comprises 10 tennis courts, a two-storey block, a single-storey block and 95 parking lots. SLA has strictly specified commercial and sports and recreation use only, with no religious or racial activity permitted. Up to 40 per cent of the overall GFA may be set aside for commercial use. The guide rent indicated to bidders is $52,000 a month.

STC began operating in January 1977, and the highlight of its grand opening two months later was an all-star exhibition featuring four professionals, including Wimbledon legend Margaret Court.

Mr Liu, a former president of the Singapore Lawn Tennis Association, was widely acknowledged as a passionate tennis entrepreneur in the 1970s. He built STC in hopes of making Singapore the tennis centre of South-east Asia, according to media reports at the time.

Knight Frank will handle the Tuesday auction at the Carlton Hotel.

Mr Liu, who has set up a venture to run 10 serviced office units in rented premises starting in May in Beijing’s Central Business District, said he may return to China if he is unsuccessful at next week’s auction.

Source : Business Times - 23 Feb 2006

ANOTHER group of homeowners have jumped on the increasingly popular collective-sale bandwagon.

This time, it’s the folks at Suffolk Apartments, off Newton Road, who are asking for $29 million collectively through a public tender.

At present, the freehold site has 24 apartment units. Sitting on 20,384 square feet of land, it has a gross plot ratio of 2.8 and a height restriction of 36 storeys.

CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), the marketing agent for the project, said the owners are asking for around $510 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr), inclusive of a development charge of $108,698.

Over 80 per cent of the owners of Suffolk Apartments have agreed to the collective sale, the property’s first attempt.

If they are successful, CBRE’s associate director of investment properties Charles Hoon estimates that the price fetched will be a 55 per cent premium over what each owner would get if they had sold their apartments individually. On average, each owner would receive around $1.2 million.

Mr Hoon reckons that the winning bidder for the site could develop a 36-storey condominium with some 50 units of about 1,100 sq ft each.

He also told BT that the winning developer could break even at about $800 psf, based on the $29 million price.

With the property’s proximity to the Newton and Novena MRT stations in the popular Novena area, Mr Hoon said there have been ‘quite a few enquiries’ about the site from interested developers, though he declined to name them.

Recent collective sale successes around the prime Orchard Road area have generated attention.

Angullia Mansion at Angullia Park, for instance, went to Far East Organization earlier this month at a land cost of $1,058 psf ppr inclusive of development charges.

The tender for Suffolk Apartments will close on March 24.

Source : Business Times - 22 Feb 2006

Estimated 15 per cent of 100 GCBs sold in 2005 are to PRs

PERMANENT residents (PRs) are increasingly looking to buy high-end landed homes here and some developers are hoping their ready-built new luxury homes will appeal to them.

Douglas Wong, associate director of Regal Homes, Residential (Knight Frank) believes that around 100 Good Class Bungalows (GCB) were sold in 2005, and as many as 15 per cent may have been sold to PRs. ‘Sales of GCBs to foreigners are restricted but with right approvals, PRs have been buying,’ he adds.

Mr Wong notes that PRs are not allowed to buy landed properties bigger than 15,070 sq ft - also the minimum size of a GCB - and this puts two new GCBs that his firm is marketing directly in their shopping range.

The bungalows are being developed by George Lim, a private developer who used to live on the sprawling 47,540 sq ft site before deciding to sub-divide it into three smaller GCB plots. The third GCB is on a 17,400 sq ft plot.

Mr Lim also engaged award-winning architects Liu & Wo Architect to design resort-style villas that will be in move-in condition for between $11 million-$13 million.

Steven Ming, director of Savills Prestige Homes, which is co-marketing the property, says that the last GCB sold in the vicinity went for $410 psf in mid-2005. ‘But this is not a good comparison because it did not include a new house, and the prices for GCBs were only starting to pick up then,’ he says.

Still, even within the 39 GCB zones in Singapore, most of which are in Districts 10 and 11, the precise location matters. The highest prices are for those in areas like Bishopsgate and Cluny Hill, where prices are in excess of $500 psf.

Scarcity may, however, drive prices up so market watchers will be paying close attention to the price fetched for a huge GCB site at Binjai Park that has just come on the market. Marketed by CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), the site at Jalan Kampong Chantek is 86,000 sq ft and can be subdivided into five individual GCBs. The owner of the land is expecting around $35 million, or around $400 per sq ft.

CBRE associate director Charles Hoon believes new houses built on the land could fetch around $10 million. ‘Supply of GCBs is limited and this site is one of only about 2,000 GCBs in Singapore. The only transaction in Jalan Kampong Chantek was completed in May 2004 for $400 per sq ft of land area. Another one in Swiss Club Road was sold for $468 per sq ft in May 2005,’ Mr Hoon adds.

The tender for the GCB site will close on March 21.

Source : Business Times - 22 Feb 2006

The Paya Lebar Crescent house of former Citiraya CEO Ng Teck Lee, whose whereabouts are unknown, is going up for auction on Tuesday with an indicative price of $2.3 million to $2.4 million.

The two-storey freehold detached house - 97 Paya Lebar Crescent - is being put up for sale by its mortgagee bank, which is understood to be United Overseas Bank.

Knight Frank is conducting the auction. The property has a land area of about 7,308 sq ft and a gross floor area of about 5,000 sq ft. The bungalow has four bedrooms, each with an attached bathroom.

The property was in the news in March last year when it was advertised in The Sunday Times’ classified section. The ad had a housing agent’s contact number and the agent subsequently said the ‘very serious seller’ who had ‘emigrated’ was asking for $3.4 million, BT reported at the time. The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) then stepped in to say that no sale would be allowed pending the bureau’s investigations at Citiraya.

CPIB said then it had asked the Registrar of Titles & Deeds to lodge a caveat on the property. A title search yesterday showed a Registrar’s caveat lodged on the property on March 8, 2005.

Potential buyers may wish to note that next week’s auction conditions for the property state that it is being sold free from encumbrances. If, however, the vendor (in this case, the mortgagee bank) is unable to remove any caveat charge order or other encumbrance, the sale will be cancelled and any deposit paid will be refunded to the buyer.

Ng is understood to have bought the house for $2.6 million in 2000. He is now at large, and the property is being offered with vacant possession.

Eleven people have been charged so far with corruption at Citiraya, an electronic-waste recycler.

Of the eleven, nine have been jailed. The jailed people include Ng’s younger brother, Teck Boon, who was formerly Citiraya’s assistant general manager. He was sentenced to eight years’ jail.

Citiraya, listed on the Singapore Exchange, has filed for judicial management. Knight Frank auctioneer Mary Sai, who confirmed that the house will go under the hammer on Tuesday, said the property has drawn a fair amount of interest since it appeared on its auction list - from those intrigued by its previous occupant as well as potential buyers.

Source : Business Times - 22 Feb 2006