Pearlbank Apartments, Mitre Hotel Up For Sale

Source : The Business Times, 7 Aug 2007

PEARLBANK Apartments in the Chinatown area and Mitre Hotel off Killiney Road have been launched for sale.

And on Friday last week, MCL Land said it had bought Dynasty Garden Court 1 in Sixth Avenue for $80 million or $1,160 per square foot of land area. The freehold site is designated for three-storey mixed landed housing. The collective sale was brokered by Credo Real Estate.

Knight Frank says it expects at least $750 million for Pearlbank Apartments. This reflects a unit land price of $1,445 per sq ft of potential gross floor area including an estimated $137 million the developer will have to pay the state to restore the lease on the 82,376 sq ft site to 99 years from a balance of about 62.

In the Killiney Road area, the Mitre Hotel and a two-storey outhouse that sit on freehold land of 39,972 sq ft are expected to fetch about $200 million, or close to $1,800 psf per plot ratio, including an estimated $700,000 development charge.

Jones Lang LaSalle is marketing the property, which is being sold by public tender after a court order was made following a dispute among the Chiam family members who own it.

The site is zoned for residential use with a 2.8 plot ratio - the ratio of maximum potential gross floor area to land area - and a 10-storey height limit. The tender closes on Sept 12.

Pearlbank Apartments, next to Pearl’s Hill City Park, was built on land sold in 1969 under the Third Urban Redevelopment Authority Sale of Sites programme. It was the first all-housing project built on a URA land parcel.

The development has 280 apartments and eight commercial units. Knight Frank says owners representing more than 80 per cent of share values have signed the collective sale agreement. The project has an existing gross floor area (GFA) of 613,530 sq ft, equivalent to a 7.447 plot ratio - higher than the 7.2 designated for the site under Master Plan 2003.

Knight Frank’s price expectation of ‘at least $750 million’ is based on the assumption that the developer can retain the existing GFA in a new project.

‘Based on an average unit size of 1,200 sq ft, 500 new apartments can be built on the site,’ the firm says. Because of the site’s elevation, even lower-level units will have unblocked views of the city skyline, it adds.

Developers have until Sept 18 to submit offers.