Stansfield Wins Tenancy Auction Of Its Premises

Source : The Business Times, May 29, 2008

STANSFIELD Group yesterday won a Singapore Land Authority (SLA) tenancy auction, allowing it to continue leasing its existing eight-storey premises at 11 Penang Lane from SLA for a further period of up to nine years.

Stansfield's winning bid was for $270,000 monthly rental for a three-year lease term, with options to renew for another two terms of three years each.

However, lease renewals for the second and third terms will be at market rentals at the time.

The $270,000 monthly works out to $7.96 per square foot (psf) based on the building's gross floor area of 33,905 square feet.

Stansfield leased the building from SLA in May 2003 after the group won a public tender for a 3+2 year tenancy.

Before that, the building had been used by National Council of Social Service.

Knight Frank conducted the auction for the tenancy on behalf of SLA.

The $270,000 monthly rental that Stansfield will pay SLA for the next three years is over six times the $40,000-plus it was paying SLA under the lease that has just expired.

The group was prepared to bid high to 'spare our students the inconvenience and disruption that would have resulted had we moved to new premises', Stansfield CEO Ramel Ang said when contacted by BT yesterday.

'We are committed to the students and want to ensure continuity for them,' he added.

Stansfield is suing the Consumers Association of Singapore over an alleged breach of an agreement governing insurance payments that hampered its ability to bring in foreign students.

Since Stansfield's existing 3+2 year lease for 11 Penang Lane expired on May 19 this year, the group has been occupying the building under a Temporary Occupation Licence issued by SLA.

Bidding for the building's tenancy at yesterday's auction began at a monthly rental of $76,000.

A total of 10 parties took part in the bidding, including other private schools and investors, some of whom were keen to convert the building into a hotel, BT understands.

Separately, Knight Frank also sold two properties at its auction yesterday at Amara Singapore.

One was a four-storey building at 466 Serangoon Road, which was sold on behalf of its liquidator, for $3.2 million.

The 999-year leasehold property, which is currently tenanted, has a shop on the ground level and apartments on the upper floors. The total net lettable area is 7,061 sq ft.

The other property sold was a 1,399-sq-ft ground-floor shop unit at the freehold Tembeling Centre in the East Coast area, that fetched $1.31 million.