Frasers Centrepoint has completed its acquisition of an 18-per-cent stake in Allco Reit and all of Allco Singapore, which manages the property trust. Allco Reit will now be renamed Frasers Commercial Trust following the $180-million deal. Frasers Centrepoint has now dropped plans to list its own separate commercial property trust. Instead, it will offer its current portfolio of commercial assets, worth...

Upping the swank factor While almost everybody else in China was glued to news about the Olympics, Singapore-based Frasers Hospitality yesterday opened its swankiest digs to date in the country, the 357-unit Fraser Suites CBD in Beijing, which cost US$135 million ($190 million). Singapore President S R Nathan, in the Chinese capital at the invitation of that country’s government to watch the Games,...

With no new major buildings yet completed, supply of office space continues to be tight in the Central Business District (CBD). In the wake of unceasing uncertainties in the wider economy and high office rentals, more companies are adopting a cautious business approach, gravitating towards cheaper premises like decentralised office buildings, industrial properties, business parks and disused State...

S’pore contractor is happy concocting his own brews For small-time contractor Ernest Ng, the recent property boom largely passed him by. High material costs and the difficulty in getting skilled labour has made him reconsider the wisdom of staying on in the business. “The Government has said that the construction industry will be one of the sectors that will remain buoyant. But for small timers like...

Real estate company PNL Real Estate was charged on Tuesday with the unauthorised change of a residential apartment into a workers’ dormitory. The premises - at Public Mansion, 432 Balestier Road - was also in breach of Section 30(1) of the Fire Safety Act. The offence came to light in June this year. Using wooden partitions, the 120.77 square metre apartment had been separated into 32 narrow cubicles....

Former Changi Camp buildings to be transformed into tourist hotel HOTELS operators are being sought to give these two rundown barracks buildings near Changi Village a new lease of life. They used to be part of a military camp in Hendon Road. However, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) believes they can be readily adapted into a hotel and is inviting a public tender. Since last year, SLA has awarded four...

Former UNSW Asia site next to business parkwill help new varsitybuild industry links WHEN Singapore’s fourth publicly-funded university goes fully operational in Changi in five years’ time, it should feature a Silicon Valley-type buzz. Plans are underway to use its permanent location next to Changi Business Park - home to high-tech enterprises and knowledge intensive facilities, as well as industry...

Martin No. 38 is designed by award-winning architect Kerry Hill. It is based on warehouse lofts in New York and London and features high ceilings and seamless interior spaces. An austere and beguiling industrial aestheticism pervades the details of this development, from the blackened tap fittings to the sheet-metal panels in the bathrooms, with their exposed bolt heads, unplastered interior concrete...

This year's Hungry Ghost Festival, which is celebrated on the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar, comes at a time when the global economy is also slowing. Traditionally, it means a quieter property market as investors and developers lie low during what they perceive to be an inauspicious occasion. The Singapore property market is no exception, but experts said lower volumes may not be due to...

The former Changi Military Camp at Hendon Road has been offered for development as a hotel. This is the second state property that has been put up for hotel use. The first state property that has been converted for hotel use is No. 175A Chin Swee Road. It is now a boutique business hotel called Hotel Re!. The former military camp has a land area of 9,666 square metres – slightly larger than a football...