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The space vacated by Singapore Petroleum Company in Golden Shoe Car Park earlier this week is to be used for shops and F&B outlets, the property’s owner said yesterday. The car park is owned by CapitaCommercial Trust, a real estate investment trust sponsored by property company CapitaLand.

The development is the last phase of the trust’s efforts to improve the look of the car park, and renovation works are expected to take several months.

After the revamp there will be about 20 fewer parking spaces. There are at present more than 1,000 spaces, CapitaLand told BT yesterday.

The refurbishment of Golden Shoe comes after CapitaLand’s renovation of the nearby Market Street car park, which reopened in November.

At Market Street car park, rents went up by 38 per cent and the net lettable area increased to 1,970 sq m from 1,550 sq m. Market observers expect rents to rise similarly at Golden Shoe car park once the revamp is complete.

CNA yesterday also reported that CapitaLand has received provisional permission to build a nine-storey office tower on top of the existing Funan DigitaLife Mall.

This will include additions and alterations to the building, home largely of retailers of electronics and computer products. To maximise the useable space, CapitaMall Trust is working out a plan with the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

The report said CapitaMall Trust wanted to achieve a more efficient floor plate when developing the proposed office block and to minimise disruptions to the retail tenants. The trust will release more details when the plans are finalised.

Source : Business Times - 04 May 2007

Space spread out over 284 units will be for sale

ASCENDAS has started to construct a $118 million factory building for use by food production businesses. A total of 72,000 sq m of space spread out over 284 units will be for sale at the new FoodXchange@Admiralty site.

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony for the seven-storey ramp-up facility on Admiralty Road West yesterday, Ascendas president and CEO Chong Siak Ching said that, based on feedback, food industrialists - most of them with small or medium-sized companies - generally preferred to own their own premises.

Ms Chong said that at the end of Q2 2006, occupancy in high-rise food facilities exceeded the 84 per cent level for non-food multi-tenanted facilities.

She said current market rates for comparable sale units are $260 to $310 per square foot.

The FoodXchange@Admiralty site has a balance of 53 years on its lease.

On whether the new facility could see its way into Ascendas’ real estate investment trust, Ascendas Reit, Ms Chong said: ‘The development is still in early stages and discussions of its future plans, such as whether it would be part of a trust, would be premature.’

Spring Singapore chairman Philip Yeo, also present at the ceremony, said that the output of SMEs in the food manufacturing industry increased 11.4 per cent in 2005 over the previous year to hit $2.4 billion. He said that 95 per cent of the 680 enterprises in the food manufacturing industry are SMEs.

He said: ‘Growing local SMEs develop higher value added exportable food products. Direct exports increased by 6 per cent to $714 million in 2005.’

Mr Yeo said that global sales of processed foods are worth more than $4.5 trillion and are expected to grow at 4.4 per cent each year.

FoodXchange@Admiralty will have specialised features including a dedicated kitchen exhaust shaft, cold room operations and design which helps prevent cross-contamination.

In March, Soilbuild Group launched its Senoko Food Connection terrace food factories. The net saleable area is 20,271 sq m and industry watchers estimated that prices would be $140-$150 per square foot.

Source : Business Times - 4 May 2007

… deserves a better name? CapitaLand’s latest retail project may not be called Orchard Turn after all. SHAAN SETH asks industry players how vital a mall’s name is

Parents are not the only ones who take pains to come up with names for their kids. Retail developers are also bent on giving their babies catchy, meaningful monikers.

All eyes are now on CapitaLand’s upcoming retail project atop the Orchard MRT station.

Commonly dubbed Orchard Turn because of its address, 2 Orchard Turn, the landmark mall is part of a $2-billion retail and residential joint venture between Singapore’s biggest developer and Hong Kong’s Sun Hung Kai Properties.

But responding to queries from Life!, a CapitaLand spokesman says: ‘The brand name of our retail mall, Orchard Turn Retail Mall, has yet to be confirmed.’

Ms Soon Su Lin, chief executive of the joint venture company Orchard Turn Developments, says the name is likely to be announced in July.

‘We are exploring possible names… The name that we select will be unique and will give our mall a personality and branding that our target shoppers can identify and engage with,’ she says.

Orchard Turn Developments is currently working with a brand consultant, she adds.

The first new building to emerge in Orchard Road in a decade, the 218m-tall, 56-storey luxury project will also be the tallest along the shopping stretch.

The mall will take up eight floors - four basement levels and the four floors above ground - while 175 luxurious apartments will occupy the other 48 floors.

Called Orchard Residences, the first phase of 98 apartments were snapped up at a record average price of $3,213 per sq ft in March.

The retail mall will have more than 450 stores spread over 1 million sq ft of retail space. VivoCity, Singapore’s largest mall, has about 1.1 million sq ft of retail space.

The mall is set to be completed by the end of next year while the apartments will be ready at the end of 2009.

Property insiders Life! spoke to are not surprised that Orchard Turn’s name is still up in the air.

‘The name was too generic to begin with. I expect a name which will better reflect the mall’s unique positioning,’ says Ms Claire Cher, senior marketing and communications manager of UOL Group, which owns malls such as Velocity @ Novena Square and United Square.

Mr John Ting, former president of the Singapore Institute of Architects, agrees.

‘Orchard Turn could be anything. It could be a hotel, a mall. It doesn’t conjure up an image in people’s minds.’

He declines to suggest a name, but says: ‘It should have something to do with Orchard because this name is well-known and has value.

‘Everyone wants to be associated with Orchard. Even buildings a mile away state that they are within 10 minutes of Orchard Road.’

A mall’s name ‘makes a statement about what the mall stands for’, says Dr Seshan Ramaswami, practice associate professor of marketing at Singapore Management University.

‘It should add to the brand cachet of the mall rather than just describe its owners or location,’ he adds.

‘For instance, a plaza seems to denote a low-end atmosphere while the ‘city’ in Ngee Ann City or VivoCity brings to mind vastness.’

CapitaLand’s mixed project also makes it unique because there is a need for separate names for two projects under one roof.

Mr Danny Yeo, executive director of property consultancy Knight Frank, says: ‘In retail, the easier a name is to pronounce and remember, the better. But with residential projects, names tend to be fancy so they sound high class.’

Developers often rope in brand consultants, advertising agencies and focus groups to help christen their projects.

The process can cost anything from $3,000 to more than $30,000 and can take up to several months.

Take UOL Group, which paid home-grown branding consultants Bonsey Group and an advertising agency more than $50,000 when developing the name of Velocity @ Novena Square.

‘Advertising agencies are in the creative industry and bring a fresh perspective to the table,’ says Ms Cher.

Industry players tell Life! good names share three traits: They stand out, are easy to pronounce and stick in the mind.

Mr Ting cites The Centrepoint as a good example: ‘The Centrepoint is easy to remember and makes you think that it’s the centre of activity.’

Mrs Jannie Tay, managing director of luxury watch retailer The Hour Glass and president of the Singapore Retailers Association, agrees: ‘It made the mall sound more important simply by adding one word.’

Formerly known as Centrepoint, the mall owned by Frasers Centrepoint Malls was renamed last December.

Ms Cher says a good name should also convey a mall’s selling points, such as brand positioning or a unique experience - what the mall can offer.

One mall that passed this test is Paragon.

Dr Ramaswami says: ‘It is a nice name that captures the high-end nature of the mall.’

Others have problems with Ngee Ann City.

‘The fact that most people refer to the building as Taka, short for department store Takashimaya in the mall, suggests that the name was never effective,’ says Mr Spencer Ball, design director of British branding consultancy Fitch.

Then there are those that draw mixed reviews.

Mr Ting says of Palais Renaissance, home to designer labels like DKNY and Valentino: ‘Unless you know French, the name won’t make sense. You wouldn’t associate it with Singapore.’

But Mrs Tay feels the name suits its high-end image. ‘Palais Renaissance caters to a small niche market so its name is well-suited,’ she says.

At the end of the day, however, the success of a mall boils down to its location, design and mix of stores, says Dr Ramaswami.

But he notes that the name is ‘part of the package and can make a mall more attractive at practically no additional cost’.

Mr Yeo of Knight Frank believes an Orchard Turn by any other name would smell just as sweet.

‘I think people will head to the mall no matter what it’s called because it’s in a prime location,’ he says.

Source : Straits Times - 4 May 2007

ASCENDAS, a supplier of business space, has leapt into the niche food and beverage (F&B) sector with a move to develop a $118 million multi-tenanted facility.

The development, on a 3ha site at Admiralty Road West, will be Singapore’s first private food development to offer units for sale, the company said.

The industrial units will be fitted with facilities designed for companies in the food and beverage industry.

They will be suitable for businesses in central kitchen operations and cold room operations, the developer said.

The units will have strata titles - essentially a type of ownership devised for multi-level apartment blocks, which have apartments at different levels or ’strata’.

The seven-storey ramp-up facility is targeted at food industrialists, mainly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in food manufacturing and warehousing.

Though the price of each unit has not been revealed, Ascendas says that it will release a total of 72,000 sq m of quality space in 284 units when the facility is ready by the end of next year.

‘This new food facility provides companies the opportunity to own their dedicated space within a community of food industrialists,’ said Ascendas president and chief executive Chong Siak Ching.

‘The food manufacturing industry enjoys a healthy future, driven in part by the Government’s aggressive efforts to boost tourism performance and double visitorship to 17 million by 2015.’

Spring Singapore’s chairman, Mr Philip Yeo, who was at the ground- breaking ceremony of the Ascendas food hub yesterday, said that global sales of processed foods are worth more than $4.5 trillion and are expected to grow at 4.4 per cent each year.

To tap into this booming market, Mr Yeo said Singapore’s food SMEs must continue to upgrade their capabilities and processes, and harness technology to innovate their products.

Currently, other dedicated food facilities include KA Foodlink by JTC Corp, and Shimei East Kitchen and Gourmet East Kitchen by the Housing Board.

But these are for lease only, Ascendas pointed out.

Source : Straits Times - 4 May 2007

A RECLAIMED island to the north-east of Singapore is being developed into a $30-million industrial park for construction-related activities.

Pulau Punggol Timor - about one-third the size of Sentosa - will be called the Construction Industry Park (CIP) and will be Singapore’s first such purpose-built facility offshore.

The island, which is currently uninhabited, will be a future landing and stockpile site for sand and granite imports.

Companies supplying pre-mixed concrete and prefabricated components will also set up plants there. This will save time and money because raw materials will not need to be transported to different locations.

Currently, sand and granite brought into Singapore end up either at Tuas or Lorong Halus.

While there are concrete plants at Tuas, they are not located next to the landing point, a spokesman for the Building and Construction Industry (BCA), which is spearheading the project, told The Straits Times.

When the CIP is fully operational by end-2009, the facility at Lorong Halus will be shut down and the land redeveloped for other uses, she said.

For easy access to the new facility, the BCA is building a 6km-long road called the Western Road Link. The two-way road, with a single lane in each direction, will branch off from the junction of the Central Expressway and Tampines Expressway, near the Seletar Water Reclamation Plant.

From there, it will run next to the Seletar Country Club and past Seletar Airport before linking to Pulau Punggol Barat, another reclaimed island, and Punggol Timor.

A new bridge will also be built between Pulau Punggol Timor and Punggol Way.

When The Straits Times visited the area recently, road works were already in full swing just outside Seletar Country Club.

The 6km road link is expected to be ready by the end of next year and costs $50 million, bringing the total cost of the project to $80 million.

The BCA spokesman said the island had been identified as the most appropriate location for the construction park.

Mr Andrew Khng, a director at Tiong Seng Contractors, welcomed the development.

‘Consolidation is always a good thing, and a one-stop centre will definitely add to convenience for the industry and construction companies,’ he said.

Building the facility on an island and away from population centres also makes good sense, he said. The stretch of the Tampines Expressway near Lorong Halus can get very busy and ‘unsightly’, especially on hot days, when the whole area also becomes very dusty, he added.

The new, bigger facility will ‘enhance the construction industry’s overall resilience’ by providing extra space to stockpile sand and granite, said the BCA spokesman.

This is important, especially if the industry is hit by supply disruptions, she said.

Source : Straits Times - 4 May 2007