Koh Brothers Buys 2 Petrol Station Sites

Source : The Strait Times, Nov 23, 2007

CONSTRUCTION and property development firm Koh Brothers Group yesterday paid $19.6 million to snap up two freehold petrol station sites, which are both next to properties it already owns.

The first - a 13,498 sq ft site in Bukit Timah Road costing $13.3 million - is adjacent to the group's freehold Alocassia Apartment site.

Koh Brothers bought Alocassia in May last year for $30 million. The site, first developed in 1996, had 45 service apartments and seven commercial units.

Once the two sites are combined, the listed firm will have a land area of 44,863 sq ft and a gross floor area of 62,808 sq ft. Koh Brothers said in a statement that it may develop a residential project on the combined land.

The second site it bought yesterday is a 26,433 sq ft commercial plot on Changi Road, which used to be a petrol station.

The group paid $6.3 million for the plot, which is next to its 61-room Changi Hotel that opened in 1994. It said that it may build an office building with shops on the ground floor.

On a per square foot basis, the Bukit Timah plot cost around $985 while the Changi Road site cost nearly $788.

Koh Brothers' last buy was in June, when it joined hands with three other developers to buy the freehold Lincoln Lodge site off Newton Road for $243 million.