HGC tops bids for Little India site with $48.89m
Its proposed development is a 350-400 room hotel with retail space
The sizzling hot Singapore hotel market has drawn out listed Hotel Grand Central Ltd (HGC) - which, to date, owns only one hotel here - to emerge as the top bidder for a 99-year leasehold ‘white’ site at Belilios Road in the Little India area with a $48.89 million bid.
Assuming it is awarded the site, the group plans to develop a 350 to 400-room hotel targeted at the ‘mid-market segment of travellers who seek value’, an HGC spokesman told BT yesterday.
The group is also planning to include some retail space for its proposed development, possibly on the ground floor on the side facing Serangoon Road, he added.
He declined to give any estimate for the all-in investment in the project, but said HGC hopes to complete the development around early 2009.
The other four bidders for the site, which was offered under a state tender that closed yesterday were: a Hotel Royal Ltd subsidiary ($43.39 million); Soilbuild Group ($41.86 million); Bishopsgate Developments, part of the BS Capital group ($35.18 million); and Lee Han Boon ($29.9 million).
Assuming the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) awards the site to HGC, it will be the group’s first major hotel investment in Singapore in around 30 years. It currently owns just one hotel in Singapore - the namesake Hotel Grand Central at Kramat Lane in the Orchard Road vicinity, behind Le Meridien - which it completed in the early 1970s and expanded in two later phases.
‘Our bid for the Belilios Road site reflects our confidence in the Singapore tourism sector,’ HGC’s spokesman noted.
The group’s proposed hotel at Belilios Road will target primarily Indian travellers but HGC is also gunning for other Asian travellers, including those from Indonesia and the Philippines. Another group will be travellers from Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom ‘who wish to sample Indian culture without going to India’.
‘The site is in a really interesting location which will appeal to tourists. Belilios Road was named after a cattle rancher from Calcutta and it is also next to a Hindu temple dedicated to the goddess Kali,’ HGC’s spokesman said. The site can be developed into a project with a maximum gross floor area of 116,282 sq ft. As a ‘white’ site, the possible range of uses allowed for the plot include hotel, retail, dining, entertainment, office and residential, URA had said earlier.
Although mainboard-listed HGC now has just one hotel in Singapore, it has a sizeable chain overseas, comprising more than 20 hotels in Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia, most of which are owned and managed by the group under brand names like Hotel Grand Chancellor and Hotel Grand Continental.
Source : Business Times - 23 May 2007
Loading ...
Post a Comment
Tell me a bit about yourself; who you are, where you're from, what information you would like to see on this site. As I continue to provide you with Singapore property happenings, your feedback will encourage me to post more frequently. Thank you.