Tender For Phase 3 Of Fusionopolis Will Open By H2

Source : Channel NewsAsia, 28 June 2008

Singapore is seeing an overwhelming demand for research and development space, particularly from the info-communication, media and science sectors.

So to meet the growing need, the government said it will expand the Fusionopolis cluster at one-north.

This was revealed at the ground-breaking ceremony of Phase 2B of the development on Friday.

The ground-breaking marks the start of Phase 2B of Fusionopolis. However, further development of the cluster is now projected to grow at a much faster pace.

Philip Su, Assistant CEO, JTC Corporation, said: "In terms of demand from the private sector for space in business park, you'll find that we are presently quite short.

"Even with the ground-breaking of Phase 2B, there is an unfulfilled demand for such space. So, that's the reason why we may have to push forward some of our plans to bring in Phase 3."

An additional 50,000 square metres of Gross Floor Area will be added under Phase 3 and Phase 4. And to meet demand for more business park space, JTC is bringing forward the development of the third phase.

It will open Phase 3 for tender by the private sector by the second half of this year.

Speaking at the ground-breaking, Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang noted that Fusionopolis plays a key role in building up a knowledge-based economy in Singapore.

Mr Lim said: "The Fusionopolis cluster, together with the other developments in one-north, will help to anchor high-value economic activities and contribute to the development of Singapore as a knowledge-intensive economy."

When ready, the 15-storey building will house R&D labs for the infocomm, media, science and engineering industries. As part of the Fusionopolis cluster, it is expected to set the stage for more public-private partnerships.

With Fusionopolis Phases 1 and 2A previously attaining full occupancy even before completion, Phase 2B is expected to receive similar responses.

Low Soon Sim, Executive Director, Soilbuild, said: "There has been quite a bit of interest, and at this point in time, we are focusing on their design requirements."

Mainboard-listed Soilbuild is the developer for Phase 2B - the first private developer in the Fusionopolis cluster. Construction for Phase 2B is expected to be completed by 2010. - CNA/ms

SLA To Auction Off Eight Vacant Plots For Homes

Source : The Straits Times, June 27, 2008

THE Government has put a further eight small plots of vacant land on sale, some in prime districts like Ridout Road, near Peirce Road.

These infill sites have been popular with buyers who want to build their homes from scratch - but the catch is that the sites are on 99-year leases, and some of them are oddly shaped.

They are either in landed estates that have been left untouched by nearby developments, or are plots once used for public purposes, housing possibly parks, sub-stations or even septic tanks.

The plot in Ridout Road would be ideal for a good-class bungalow. These large bungalows have a minimum land area of 15,070 sq ft.

Another site is in Upper East Coast Road, near Woo Mon Chew Road in the Siglap area.

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) will auction the eight sites at M Hotel on Aug 21.

Mr Simon Ong, the SLA's assistant chief executive of the land operations group, said: 'The appeal of such sites is that they can be customised to suit the buyers' needs.'

Mr Teo Jing Kok, the SLA's deputy director of land sales, said that normally, a family that wants to design and build a home would have to buy a piece of land along with the existing building, which they have to demolish before they can redevelop the site.

'Often, after paying so much for the building, most landowners are tempted to keep the existing building or parts of it and retrofit their dream design into the existing form.'

But with a vacant infill site, they would be able to freely customise the design of the entire home, said Mr Teo.

He added that some bidders of previous infill sites were experienced investors who said the sites made good investment properties as the land cost was lower.

'Since the upfront investment is lower, the yield of the investment is higher for such 99-year properties,' said Mr Teo.

An auction for six infill sites late last year attracted fairly brisk bidding and ended with sale prices ranging from $1.3 million to $12.1 million.

Brunei Prince Fights To Keep Nassim Mansion

Source : The Straits Times, June 27, 2008

Worth at least $120m, it was used by the prince up to year 2000

THE fight between Brunei's national investment firm and the sultan's brother, Prince Jefri Bolkiah, has reached Singapore's courts.

The prize in this legal battle: the prince's now-unoccupied Nassim Road mansion, worth at least $120 million and believed to have housed valuable artworks and other assets.

HOUSE OF CONTENTION: The Brunei Investment Agency (BIA) is seeking court order here to compel the prince (2nd image) to hand over the title to this Nassim Road mansion. The Registrar of Titles here requires a Singapore court order for the BIA to be registered as the legal owner of the mansion. -- ST PHOTO: LIM WUI LIANG

The prince, the younger brother of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, is already mired in tussles with the Brunei Investment Agency (BIA) over his assets elsewhere, including those in London and New York.

The BIA, which the sultan oversees, is the main agency holding and managing the Brunei government's General Reserve Fund and its external assets.

In the fight for the Nassim Road property, the BIA is represented here by Senior Counsel Vinodh Coomaraswamy.

According to court documents filed in the Supreme Court, the BIA is seeking a court order to compel the 53-year-old prince to hand over the title to the premises.

The Registrar of Titles here requires a Singapore court order for the BIA to be registered as the legal owner of the mansion.

Prince Jefri, defended here by lawyer George Pereira, is contesting the application.

A hearing has been fixed for October.

The plush Nassim Road premises, named Arwaa mansion, were understood to have been used by Prince Jefri up to the year 2000.

The house, having been developed as a single structure from two back-to-back properties with different addresses, has entrances on two roads.

Although unoccupied, it is guarded round the clock by private security staff; cleaners are also there regularly.

In a bid to keep it in his possession, Prince Jefri is expected to argue, among other things, that Arwaa mansion was excluded, and therefore separate, from matters heard before the Brunei courts as part of the enforcement proceedings started there against him in 2004.

The prince, who left Brunei that year and now lives in France, is expected to ask the courts here to return Arwaa mansion to him.

His assets in London are still the subject of court enforcement.

Over in New York, a court ordered in March that he hand over ownership of the plush New York Palace hotel in Manhattan to the Brunei government.

It has been reported, however, that the court has barred its sale because the prince is disputing the order for a chance at ownership.


The legal battle

BILLIONS of dollars are alleged to have gone missing while Prince Jefri Bolkiah was Brunei's finance minister.

He signed an agreement out-of-court with Brunei's government in May 2000 to hand over several of his properties and valuables from around the world, but apparently failed to comply fully with the terms.

Legal action began against him in Brunei in 2004, and ended last year at London's Privy Council, the oil-rich kingdom's highest court of appeal, which ruled that he had to comply with the deal.

Earlier this month, the London court issued an arrest warrant against him for not showing up to answer charges that he had violated a court order to hand over £3 billion (S$8 billion) to the Brunei government.

Office Rents Nearing Peak As Supply Increases: Report

Source : The Straits Times, June 27, 2008

Impact of US sub-prime crisis, Singapore's rising inflation and weaker growth curbing rentals

AFTER more than two years of relentless rises, Singapore's office rents look to be finally peaking as more supply comes on stream.

A CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) report said the impact of the United States sub-prime crisis, rising inflation in Singapore and more modest economic growth have dampened the office sector and slowed rent rises.

Prime office rents edged up 10 cents - just 0.6 per cent - in the second quarter to $16.10 per sq ft (psf) a month on average. The rise over the first half has been 7.3 per cent, way below the 'astounding 92.3 per cent' for the whole of last year, said CBRE.

CBRE executive director office services Moray Armstrong said: 'Our sense is that the natural ceiling is close at hand.'

While there is resistance over rents from a number of occupiers, an encouraging sign is that there are still many ongoing negotiations, he said.

'Selected buildings may achieve higher rents but across the board, rentals are as high as they can go.' These are top-grade properties with rents of over $20 psf - though it is believed they are mostly for small offices.

Rents of top office buildings rose 9.6 per cent in the first half compared with 96.5 per cent in the whole of last year. Such Grade A rents averaged $18.80 psf a month in the second quarter, up from $18.65 in the first period.

Cushman & Wakefield managing director Donald Han said it was only a matter of time before rents peaked as they rose too fast and too soon last year.

'However, while office rents may have peaked, they will probably stay at the current levels for the next 12 months given tight supply,' he said.

A supply shortage over the past two years has prompted firms to try various means to save space or costs.

Some companies, facing a doubling or tripling of rent when leases were due for renewal, moved out to more affordable spaces in suburban areas or industrial locations.

And the search for lower-cost space continues. There is, for example, said Mr Armstrong, heightened interest for upcoming space in the Alexandra and Harbourfront areas.

Mr Han added that rents are also facing limited upside as many companies already made expansion plans and arranged for extra space last year.

Citigroup agreed in a recent report, saying that slowing demand and decentralisation are likely to start putting downward pressure on both rental and capital values. It tipped office rents to fall 30 to 35 per cent.

According to CBRE, the vacancy of Grade A space - now 0.6 per cent - will remain tight as no new top-grade office developments will be completed before the second half of next year.

But there is some relief in sight.

The vacancy rate for fringe areas rose from 4.6 per cent to 7 per cent in the April to June quarter because of new completions such as VisionCrest and the refurbished 111 Somerset in the Orchard Road area.

The Government has also introduced transitional office sites to help ease the shortage.

There will be about 10.2 million sq ft of new space coming on stream between now and 2012, with the bulk likely to be ready in 2010 to 2011, said CBRE. About 63 per cent of this will be in Grade A properties in the core downtown area.

Still, the supply should be viewed in context with the strong take-up rate, said CBRE. About 22 per cent of known supply from now to 2012 has already been pre-committed.

55-Year-Old Hotel To Make Way For MRT

Source : The Straits Times, June 27, 2008

Backpacker haven New 7th Storey Hotel site acquired for Downtown Line station

THE New 7th Storey Hotel, a 55-year-old landmark in Rochor Road, will check out its last guest by the end of the year.

It will then have to make way for the construction of the new Bugis MRT station for the upcoming Downtown Line.

Government agencies said yesterday that the plot of land housing the hotel will be needed to build parts of the new station, such as the entrance and lifts.

OLD-TIMER: The hotel's chief concierge Lee Chong Hock, 75. -- ST PHOTO: LIM SIN THAI

The new Bugis station is one of six that will form Downtown Line Stage 1, to open in 2013.

Constraints in the area have left the authorities no choice but to build the new station under the hotel popular with budget travellers and backpackers.

The hotel's operations manager Shirley Fong, 32, said that the management heard the news only yesterday afternoon.

Government officers had showed up with notices of the land acquisition.

'We had no advance notice at all. All our staff were taken aback,' said Ms Fong.

Explaining this, a Singapore Land Authority (SLA) spokesman said that registered land owners were notified immediately only after the land acquisition was announced on the same day in the Government Gazette.

This is because information on land acquisition is kept confidential, to ensure that no one has an advantage over others.

Ms Fong said that the hotel management will have a meeting soon to decide on its plans. It will also have to deal with about 30 guests who have made advance reservations for early next year.

The hotel, which actually has nine storeys despite its name, was opened in 1953 by the late property magnate Wee Thiam Siew. It has largely remained in the Wee family since then.

In its early days, the then-five-star hotel was popular with politicians and businessmen visiting Singapore.

It now caters more to backpackers but retains an air of old-world charm. It still uses a manually operated 'cage' lift, reportedly the last of its kind here.

Although neighbouring shophouses have been torn down over the years, the hotel has stayed intact. It stands out now as the lone building on a plot of land close to Bugis Junction.

'We sort of knew that the land might be acquired some day for development, but we did not see this coming at all,' said Ms Fong, who added that the hotel had recently spent $100,000 on new furniture and carpeting.

The SLA said that the compensation awarded to the hotel owners will be pegged at market value and take into account renovations, among other factors.

Ms Fong's top concern now is her 20 staff members, whose morale has been hit by the news.

One of them, lift operator Francis Poh, 66, said: 'We are very close here, like a family. It would be a pity to leave.'

Next to the hotel lobby in the same building is a Hainanese steamboat restaurant, which will also have to pack its bags by the end of the year.

Staff there told reporters that they had not heard of the news and declined to comment further. Their boss, who is renting the restaurant space from the hotel, was overseas.

Doctor Chan Shijie, 26, who dines at the restaurant twice a month, was sad to hear that it would have to go.

'The food here is really good and it's affordable. I hope they move somewhere else,' he said.


Balloon to go too

THE DHL balloon, operating on a plot of state land next to the hotel, will also have to find a new home.

Its lease expires at the end of August, but the Singapore Land Authority has offered it a two-month extension.

Singapore Ducktours, which runs the balloon, said it is considering the offer. In the meantime, it has identified two sites to relocate the balloon: Merchant Loop opposite Clarke Quay or the upcoming Gardens by the Bay in Marina Bay.