Orchard Road Mixed-use Projects Eye En Bloc Sale
SINGAPORE – Two ageing mixed-use developments with office space in the vicinity of the city-state’s famed Orchard Road shopping belt are attempting a collective sale, reported The Business Times on Tuesday morning (4 May, SGT).
These comprise Orchard Towers and Tanglin Shopping Centre (TSC), the news agency has learnt.
The 1st commercial property contains 2 blocks. The building in the front along Orchard Road comes with office space and retail premises, while the 25-storey rear block in Claymore Road features some commercial units and private housing.
Completed in the 1970s, Orchard Towers stands on a 6,130 sq m (65,983 sq ft) site with a plot ratio of 4.9. It also comes with a 361 car park lots.
Meanwhile, TSC was built over 50 years ago. It sits on a 68,512 sq ft freehold site with a plot ratio of 4.2, has a maximum permissible height of 20 storeys, and it enjoys unblock views of the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
Featuring more than 360 strata-titled office units and retail space, the project consists of a 6-storey retail podium and a 12-storey storey office building, along with a multi-storey and a basement car park. In total, it has a strata area of approximately 230,000 sq ft.
Notably, this marks TSC’s 4th en bloc sale attempt and the unit owners are eyeing a reserve price of S$785 million, which translates to slightly over S$2,500 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr) based on its gross floor area (GFA) of 313,000 sq ft.
The news agency understands that nearly 60 percent of the unit owners in terms of both strata area and share value have inked the collective sale agreement so far, but this is still short of the 80 percent requisite for the collective sale to proceed. In particular, CDL’s hospitality division Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, which owns 85 strata-titled lots or 34 percent of the development, is said to be among those that gave its nod to the collective sale.
Moreover, the owners of TSC have appointed Savills to market the development.
The property consultancy’s Deputy Managing Director for investment sales and capital markets, Galven Tan, revealed that some Hong Kong-based property developers are interested in the site, and are talking to their architects.
As for Orchard Towers, sources shared that the collective sale is still in the early stages, as the unit owners have recently held an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to form a collective sale committee (CSC).
According to Colliers’ Senior Director for investment services, Steven Tan, Orchard Towers is an enticing freehold asset as it’s flanked by posh and prestigious projects. It’s also located in the sought-after Orchard/Claymore area.
Apart from the limited supply in the vicinity, “such opportunities (are) seldom available in the market,” he added.
