Govt Releases New Hotel Site At Alexandra Road

Source : The Straits Times, 17 Aug 2007

The Government has released a new hotel site where the former Safra Bukit Merah Club is located, at the junction of Alexandra Road and Jalan Bukit Merah.

The 0.79ha land parcel has a 99-year lease and can be built up to a total floor area of 239,486 sq ft.

A developer that wins the site can choose to demolish or retain the Safra building, which stands empty.

The site is the first of four hotel plots to be released on the Government’s reserve list in the second half of this year.

This means it will not be put up for tender until an interested developer submits a minimum bid acceptable to the Government.

But some property consultants, such as Mr Nicholas Mak, director of research and consultancy at Knight Frank, doubt that the site will attract much interest from developers due to its location.

‘If any developer were to be interested in this site, it is likely to be a small developer or hotel operator such as Fragrance Land or Hotel 81,’ he said.

However, Mr Ku Swee Yong, director of business development and marketing at Savills Singapore, noted that there could be room for a hotel in the area.

‘It looks like a weird place to have a hotel, but down the road you have office buildings where Hewlett-Packard, Neptune Orient Lines and PSA are,’ he noted.

‘All these companies are without hotel rooms to support their business traffic.’

Mr Mak estimates that the site can host a 600-room hotel. Its likely selling price is $95 million to $103 million, or $400 to $420 per sq ft per plot ratio, he added.