Parkway Top Bidder For Private Hospital Site

Source : The Straits Times, Feb 15, 2008

$1.2b bid seals Novena's reputation as medical hub

THE Parkway group has emerged the top bidder for the new Novena medical hub, a private hospital which will be built on a 1.7 ha plot along Irrawaddy Road.

Its $1.2 billion bid was was higher than that put in by Raffles Medical and a consortium backed by developer Far East.

At about $1,600 per sq ft per plot ratio, the private hospital will stand alongside a hotel, condominium and an office building, all eyeing 'medical' guests and tenants.

The sale of site, the first private hospital since Raffles Hospital was built in 2001, is part of the plan to build up more facilities here by 2012, when one million foreign patients are expected to arrive a year for treatment.

Already in the neighbourhood are Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), the National Neuroscience Institute and National Skin Centre.

Upcoming Renci hospital and private institutions like Johns Hopkins International Medical Centre and newly launched Novena Medical Centre (NMC) complete the family of healthcare providers located within walking distance to each other.

If Parkway is awarded the site, it will have a presence in the two medical hubs - Novena and the existing cluster in Orchard, with Mount Elizabeth Hospital and medical centre as well as medical suites in Lucky Plaza and Paragon.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.