Tai Wah Building draws top bid of S$84.89m

[B][SIZE=5]Tai Wah Building draws top bid of S$84.89m[/SIZE][/B]

[B]Meanwhile, owners of Jalan Besar Plaza still in negotiations with interested developers[/B]

Fri, Nov 17, 2017

Lee Meixian


TAI Wah Building at Killiney Road has found a buyer. Lucrum Capital, a private equity investment firm focused on real estate mainly in the Asia-Pacific, has placed a top bid of about S$84.89 million for the mixed-use development.

This is about 5 per cent above its asking price of S$81 million. The price translates to about S$2,209 per sq ft per plot ratio.

Lucrum Capital plans to redevelop the property into a serviced apartment with commercial use on the first storey.

The marketing agent Edmund Tie & Company (ET&Co) declined to divulge the number of bidders, and whether Lucrum Capital submitted the highest bid.

Completed in the mid-1980s, Tai Wah Building is a four-storey building comprising two shops and six apartments. It sits on a freehold plot with a land area of about 13,148 sq ft and is zoned for "residential with commercial at first storey" under the Master Plan 2014.

Subject to authorities' approval, the site can be redeveloped up to its existing gross floor area of about 38,414 sq ft, exceeding the permissible plot ratio of 2.8 as indicated in the master plan.

ET&Co said it has submitted an application for serviced apartment with commercial use on the first storey, which has received in-principle approval from the authorities.

Meanwhile, another mixed-use development launched on the same day as Tai Wah Building, Jalan Besar Plaza in Kallang, which also sits on freehold land, has yet to confirm a buyer a week after its Nov 10 tender close date.

Terence Lian, Hutton Asia head of investment sales, said: "A few developers have expressed interest and we are in negotiations with them to take the deal forward."

He added that the matter under discussion was not the price, but rather the land use.

The developer has an option to incorporate a mix of residential, commercial and serviced residence use into the redeveloped building. The sales committee was asking for S$390 million.