Euro-Asia Centre to be sold for $125m?
Ezra Holdings’ Lee family said to be buyer of building at Cantonment Rd
A DEAL is close to being stitched up for the sale of the freehold Euro-Asia Centre in the Hoe Chiang/Cantonment roads location for about $125 million to $130 million, or about $650-$670 per square foot of existing net lettable area, say sources.
The buyer is understood to be linked to the Lee family that controls listed offshore support and marine services group Ezra Holdings.
It could not be ascertained whether the entity likely to be used for the acquisition of the 29-storey building is part of the listed group. It wouldn’t surprise market watchers if Ezra Holdings, whose offices are now at Parkway Parade, moves into the Cantonment Road property given the latter’s location in the traditional Tanjong Pagar/Keppel Road shipping quarter.
What industry observers find interesting about the deal - if it is sealed - is that the buyer is likely to continue to use the property as an office and not convert it to residential use, unlike the owners of some ageing CBD office blocks.
In fact, the building’s marketing agent Colliers International said, when the property with about 193,000 sq ft net lettable area was put up for tender in February, that outline planning permission had been obtained for redevelopment into a 35-storey residential building with commercial use on the ground floor at a 5.6 plot ratio (ratio of potential gross floor area to land area).
The tender for the 29-storey Euro-Asia Centre closed last month. The building sits on a 49,442 sq ft site and has gross floor area of 244,233 sq ft, which is about 4.9 times the site area.
Euro-Asia Centre comprises a 16-storey block completed in 1983 and another 12 floors from the 18th storey onwards completed in 2004. The site is zoned for commercial development in Master Plan 2003 with an allowable gross plot ratio of 5.6 and a height of up to 35 storeys. Euro-Asia Centre, once a jewel in property and shipping magnate PL Kua’s portfolio, is being sold by its mortgagee bank, understood to be OCBC.
Source : Business Times - 10 Apr 2006
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