Interest from investors and developers is expected to be high as the sixth hotel site goes on the reserve list of the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme.
The site is at Upper Pickering Street, opposite Hong Lim Park. As this is close to Chinatown, the Singapore River and Raffles Place, a hotel there could cater to business travellers as well as tourists.
Savills Singapore marketing and business development director Ku Swee Yong believes that when it is eventually put up for public tender, the site could attract eight to 10 bids with prices even crossing the $700 psf per plot ratio (ppr) mark. This puts a price tag of around $200 million on the 0.69 hectare site which has a maximum gross floor area (GFA) of 29,227 square metres.
The most recent new hotel site to be sold was at Bencoolen Street. It ent to LaSalle LAO Singapore for $451 psf ppr. Earlier this week, a mixed development site at Collyer Quay, with a 45 per cent hotel component, went to Sino Land for $1,540 psf ppr.
Under Urban Redevelopment Authority guidelines, hotel developments must have at least 60 per cent of their GFA dedicated for hotel use. The remaining 40 per cent may have commercial uses, including retail.
Mr Ku said that the possibility of including an office component as part of the development could raise the potential for aggressive bidding even higher.
The usual suspects, including Millennium & Copthorne Hotels and Park Hotel Group, are expected to compete for the site.
Park Hotel Group director Allen Law said he is still bullish about hotel properties here, and does not believe prices are rising too quickly even after the company lost the Collyer Quay site to Sino Land, putting in a bid that was 35 per cent lower. ‘Collyer Quay was a totally different play,’ he said.
URA has also put a large 1.16 hectare site at Punggol Point for F&B development on the GLS reserve list.
The site is part of URA’s Rustic Coast Proposals which formed part of the Parks and Waterbodies and Identity Plan of 2002.
As part of these plans, Punggol Point is intended to be developed into a sea sports and recreational destination.
The site has a maximum GFA of 3,000 sq metres. It comes with a 15-year lease. Mr Ku estimates that the site could fetch about $4.8 million, or $150 psf ppr.
Source : Business Times - 21 Dec 2006
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