Upcoming Condo Equipped With Garage In The Sky

Source : The Sunday Times, March 16, 2008

PARKING the car is set to reach a whole new level - with a high-rise condominium where every apartment comes with its own private garage in the sky.

The Hamilton, coming up at 37 Scotts Road on the former site of Hotel Asia, will make this fantasy come true.

Residents of the 30-storey tower will be able to drive their vehicle into a special glass elevator that will lift the vehicle from the ground floor to their 'porch' on the same level as their living rooms.

The 56-unit development has not been launched yet. But when built, it will become the first residential high-rise in Singapore, and only the third in the world after developments in New York and Dubai, to have this vroom-with-a-view parking feature.

Ms Leny Suparman, director of developer Hayden Properties, said the feature offers 'a unique way of living in a condominium yet with the advantages of a landed property'.

Motorists here have already become familiar with high-tech 'stack' parking, though it is not quite the seamless elevator ride The Hamilton promises.

At the Chinatown nightlife hub Club Street, the first fully mechanised public carpark was launched last month.

And MacDonald House in Orchard Road has had an elevator take vehicles to its carpark on the second and third levels after its refurbishment in June 2005.

Owning a unit at The Hamilton, complete with its own private parking bay, will not come cheap.

Hayden Properties is unable to give any price indication for its units - averaging 3,000 sq ft in size.

But according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority's website, apartments in the vicinity have been going for around $4,000 per sq ft.

At The Hamilton, that could work out to about $12 million a unit.

In land-scarce Singapore, mechanised parking systems may seem the way to go, taking up less space than conventional parking lots.

Read the full report in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.