SINGAPORE - Far East Shopping Centre is up for collective sale with a $928 million guide price, marketing agent CBRE said on Monday.
This translates to a land rate of $3,421 per sq ft per plot ratio, including a land betterment charge based on a maximum building gross floor area (GFA) of 290,574 sq ft allowable if the buyer takes advantage of the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s strategic development incentive (SDI) scheme.
The buyer will be able to extend the GFA of a redeveloped building by a maximum of 20 per cent under the scheme, on condition that it engages in a joint integrated redevelopment with adjacent sites.
Assuming full commercial usage, the land development charge payable will be $66 million, based on March 2023 rates, CBRE told The Business Times.
Located at 545 Orchard Road, the 999-year leasehold Far East Shopping Centre sits on a site spanning 36,014 sq ft zoned for commercial use.
It has an allowable gross plot ratio of 4.9 and a GFA of 242,145 sq ft.
The building was developed by Far East Organization, which is said to still own over 30 per cent of the property’s share value.
Far East Shopping Centre stands next to the voco Orchard Singapore hotel, which sits on a plot included in a development proposal sent to URA earlier.
The proposal involved land parcels housing Forum The Shopping Mall, the voco hotel and HPL House. All three parcels are owned by tycoon Ong Beng Seng’s Hotel Properties Limited (HPL).
Together, the three sites total roughly 150,000 sq ft of freehold land. Observers are expecting HPL to integrate hotel and retail components into a massive luxury mixed project in the area.
Also close to Far East Shopping Centre are Bonvests Holdings’ Liat Towers and Wharf Estates Singapore’s Wheelock Place.
In addition to joint redevelopment, the SDI scheme also proposes implementing direct underground pedestrian links from the Orchard MRT stations on both the North-South Line and Thomson-East Coast Line.
This is to boost foot traffic in this part of Orchard Road, said CBRE head of Singapore capital markets Michael Tay.
He noted that developers can also explore a combination of different land uses under the scheme, including retail, hotel, office, Mice (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) facilities and lifestyle uses.
The collective sale tender exercise for Far East Shopping Centre will close at 3pm on Sept 20. THE BUSINESS TIMES
