Former MHA Complex Up For Office Lease

Source : The Straits Times, May 14 2008

Tanglin site can be leased for an initial 3 years, with option for renewal till 2017

THE sprawling Phoenix Park site in Tanglin Road, which housed the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for more than two decades, can now be leased for office use.

The 641,852 sq ft site, in the exclusive foreign embassy district, should help ease Singapore's office space crunch.

PRESERVING HISTORY: Three of the four blocks that are now under conservation study, which means future tenants must retain their facades, including the windows and certain architectural features, during renovation work. -- PHOTO: URBAN REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) yesterday launched the site tender. The site is now also open for public viewing for the first time.

The historical buildings were built by the British after World World II. They also once housed the headquarters of the Internal Security Department, which is now at New Phoenix Park in Irrawaddy Road. The MHA moved into Phoenix Park in 1977 and stayed there until 2001, when it relocated to Irrawaddy Road.

The complex was then used by Republic Polytechnic for about two years until the middle of 2006, when the institution moved to its new campus in Woodlands.

The successful bidder will likely have to spend several million dollars to spruce up the rundown buildings before leasing them out. There are 31 blocks, of which 24 are single-storey and four are two- and three-storey buildings. Two substation blocks and one bin centre make up the rest of the buildings.

The four main blocks are now under conservation study, which means future tenants must retain the facades, including the windows and certain architectural features, during any renovation work.

The site - a gazetted tree conservation area - has a basketball court and four carparks.

The SLA wishes to work with a master tenant instead of several tenants. Its guide rent is $165,000 a month, or about $1.15 per sq ft (psf). The site has a gross floor area of 143,160 sq ft and can be leased for an initial three years, with options to renew the lease up to 2017.

Hean Nerng Holdings, a firm specialising in converting old premises for new uses, believes the site has good potential as an office location.

Mr Danny Wong, its marketing manager, said on a site tour yesterday: 'Offices can lease out one whole block with their own entrance. It's good for corporate branding.'

While the site is strictly for office use, the SLA allows for supporting uses such as a staff canteen, gymnasium and other food and recreational facilities.

Offices on the site may appeal to advertising firms, for instance, and could rent for $3 psf to $6 psf, sources said.

Due to tight supply, office rents in Singapore have surged to an average $17 psf to $18 psf for top buildings in areas like Raffles Place.

Since February last year, the SLA has helped relieve the shortage by tendering out 18 former schools and other vacant properties for office use. So far, 13 of them have been taken up.

Its tender for the former Monk's Hill Secondary School off Bukit Timah Road attracted seven bids - all above its guide rent of $147,300 a month.

AllBest Equipment had the highest tendered monthly rent of $211,328, or $2.52 psf.

General manager C.H. Chan said it would use one of the four blocks for its corporate office and lease out the rest at possibly $9 psf to $10 psf.

The firm will spend up to $4 million on renovation, which will bring its break-even cost to about $6 psf to $7 psf, he said.