URA puts up site near Little India for tender
By Fiona Chan, Property Reporter
A NEW development site near Little India was launched for tender by the Government yesterday, after almost a year of the plot languishing with no takers.
The 1.36ha plot, above the Farrer Park MRT Station at the junction of Rangoon and Race Course roads, was first made available on the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA’s) reserve list last August.
But no developer came forward to bid for it, which is the only way a site on the reserve list can be launched for public tender. This prompted the URA to expand the potential use of the site to hospitals in April.
Finally, the URA moved the plot to its confirmed list last month, to be put up for sale at a fixed date regardless of whether any interest has been expressed.
The site has a total potential gross floor area of 615,965 sq ft. At least 40 per cent must be used for hotel rooms. The remaining floor area is ‘white’, which means it can be used for homes, shops, offices, hospital space or more hotels.
Mr Lui Seng Fatt, the regional director and head of investments at Jones Lang LaSalle, believes that the best combination would be a complex with hotels, homes and a retail mall.
He noted that the only comparable project in the area is City Development’s City Square Residences, which also comprises condominium homes and a mall.
‘Hospital use itself is not fantastically profitable apart from medical suites, and those must be nearer to a hospital,’ he said.
The area set aside for compulsory hotel use can yield about 350 to 380 rooms - for ‘quite a decent-sized hotel’, he added.
If the site is to host an allhotel development, Mr Lui expects it will fetch no more than $400 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr), or about $246 million.
For a higher-yield mixed development with homes and shops, the bids could go up to $450 psf ppr, or $280 million.
This site is one of three that are being put up for tender by the URA this month. The other two are a white site in Marina View and a hotel site in Upper Pickering Street.
Last week, the URA also released a white site in Outram Road on its reserve list.
Source : The Straits Times, 06 July 2007
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