The tender deadline for the 3.22 hectare land parcel was initially on March 30. The site can potentially yield about 845 private homes.
PHOTO: URA
Updated from : The Business Times, 6 Apr 2021
THE tender for the commercial and residential site along Jalan Anak Bukit, near Beauty World MRT station, will now close on June 29, 2021.
This is due to a new requirement for a centralised cooling system to serve the future mixed-use integrated transport hub, a spokesperson for the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said in response to The Business Times’ (BT) queries.
The tender deadline for the 3.22 hectare land parcel was initially on March 30, 2021. It can potentially yield about 845 private homes, and the maximum gross floor area is about 1.04 million square feet.
Launched for sale on June 30, 2020, the site was on the confirmed list of the H1 2020 government land sales programme. URA had already offered a longer tender period of nine months then, for developers to prepare their tender submissions in view of the Covid-19 situation.
The extended closing date will give prospective tenderers more time to consider their proposals, and was conveyed to them on March 12, 2021, the URA spokesperson said.
In line with the objectives of the Singapore Green Plan 2030 that was launched recently, URA sees an opportunity for the future developer of the site to provide a centralised cooling system, which would help to improve the overall energy efficiency of the development, the spokesperson added. The inter-ministerial Green Plan was announced this February.
Agencies are reviewing the tender conditions for the Jalan Anak Bukit site to include the requirement of the cooling system, the URA spokesperson said on Monday.
The site has a dual-envelope tender system, also known as a concept-and-price-revenue tender approach, under which bidders will submit their concept proposals and tender prices separately.
The concept proposals will first be evaluated against a set of criteria, and only “compelling” ones will be shortlisted to proceed to the second stage of evaluation, which will be based on price only, URA said.
The integrated transport hub will be “pivotal” to further spur the rejuvenation of the Beauty World precinct and inject vibrancy into the area, according to URA. It added that the vision is for the site to be a “distinctive development and identity marker” for the precinct, offering a lushly landscaped living environment as well as thoughtfully designed public spaces and pedestrian networks.
Huttons Asia director of research Lee Sze Teck earlier noted that the dual-envelope tender system will limit participation to larger and highly experienced developers or consortiums that have developed such sites before. PropNex’s head of research and content Wong Siew Ying said bidding would likely be cautious given the relatively large quantum and size of the project, while Nicholas Mak, head of research and consultancy at ERA Realty, pointed out that the proximity to the MRT line would increase construction costs and challenges.
Back in June 2020, Mr Mak predicted that fewer than five bidders would participate in the tender, and the estimated land price could range from S$1.15 billion to S$1.23 billion, or about S$1,107-1,184 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr).
Huttons’ Mr Lee meanwhile expected three to five submissions, possibly with a top bid of S$1,000-1,080 psf ppr, and PropNex’s Ms Wong estimated five to seven bids could come in with a top bid of S$780 million to S$894 million, which will work out to about S$750-860 psf ppr.
Colliers International’s Singapore research head Tricia Song anticipated “buoyant interest” with seven to 10 concept proposals, and for land bids to come in at S$1.1 billion to S$1.3 billion or S$1,050-1,250 psf ppr.
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