The consortium comprising Lendlease and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) that last year bagged a plum site in Paya Lebar Central, has obtained provisional permission from Singapore’s planning authority to build a project that will comprise offices, retail space as well as 429 apartments.
Going by market talk, the apartments are expected to be launched for sale probably next year.
This will mark the first time the Australian group will be developing homes in Singapore. It has been operating here for more than four decades.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) granted provisional permission last month for the developers to build a project that will have 91,340 square metres (983,175 sq ft) gross floor area (GFA) of office space and 43,740 sq m (470,813 sq ft ) of retail space in addition to the 429 apartments.
The project is expected to be completed, that is, receive Temporary Occupation Permit in 2018, according to fourth quarter 2015 property market data released by the URA recently.
When contacted, a spokesman for Lendlease said that the apartments will be in three towers. ” . . . Lendlease is confident that the . . . project will rejuvenate the precinct when it is completed,” he added.
Given its experience in the Singapore retail market, Lendlease will probably market the retail space itself.
The Lendlease-ADIA consortium was the highest bidder for the 99-year leasehold site at a state tender that closed on March 31, 2015. Its winning bid of S$1.67 billion worked out to S$942.56 per square foot of potential gross floor area.
The site comprises four plots – two land parcels, an underground area and an airspace. The site can be developed to a maximum GFA of 164,794 sq m (about 1.77 million sq ft). Of this, at least 90,000 sq m (968,751 sq ft), amounting to nearly 55 per cent of total GFA, has to be for office use. The project will boast direct connection to both the Paya Lebar East-West Line and Circle Line MRT stations .
Lendlease has a 30 per cent stake in the consortium developing the project, while ADIA holds the majority 70 per cent.
According to a previous article, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund (SWF) is said to be an investor in the Asian Retail Investment Fund (ARIF) managed by Lendlease.
ARIF I has a 75 per cent stake in the 313@Somerset mall in Orchard Road, while ARIF III owns 75 per cent of the Jem office and retail development in Jurong East.
ADIA is also understood to have invested in BlackRock-managed funds that developed the Asia Square project in the CBD.
The SWF also previously held a 49 per cent direct stake in AXA Tower along Shenton Way in addition to being one of the investors in a BlackRock-managed fund that had owned the other 51 per cent in the circular office building opposite Tanjong Pagar MRT Station. They sold AXA Tower to a consortium led by Perennial Real Estate Holdings last year for S$1.17 billion.
Lendlease is an integrated property and infrastructure group that has operated in Singapore since 1973; its capabilities span the entire property spectrum – development, investment management, project management and construction, and asset and property management.
The URA’s Q4 2015 data also showed that MCL Land, a unit of Hongkong Land, obtained provisional permission in October for a 710-unit condo along Jurong West Street 41. The project’s name is Lake Grande.
Chinese developer MCC Land received the URA’s provisional nod in December for a condo project of 626 units along Tampines Street 86.
Meanwhile Gem Homes, the shareholders of which are Malaysia-listed group Gamuda, Evia Real Estate (7) and Maxdin, received provisional permission in November to develop a 578-unit condo in Lorong 5 Toa Payoh. When contacted, Evia Real Estate managing director Vincent Ong said that the project is slated for release in late April or early May; the average price will be S$1,480 psf. The development will have two 38-storey towers.
The project was slated for launch in late March, but this has been delayed after the authorities turned down an earlier proposed name; the developers are now awaiting approval for a new name that they have proposed for the 99-year leasehold project.