JTC sells a hotel project in the Punggol Digital district
A NEW 200-room hospitality project expected to be completed in 2024 within the planned Punggol Digital District (PDD) is available for purchase.
The 60-year lease will be attached to the development currently being constructed in a brand new, huge 50-hectare campus. JTC announced on April 29 that the development would be integrated into a commercial park in Singapore’s intelligent and sustainable district.
The development is situated on an 8,140 square metre site. The project is being advertised as a vacant possession property in a model of core-and-shell which the owner of the building creates and builds the base building, including the exterior elements. Fit-out works are done by the tenants prior to occupying the building, which will be used as a hotel, or for residential serviced apartments.
The first PDD hospitality business will be located in Coney Island and overlook Serangoon Reservoir.
“With no plans to provide future supply for (the) north-east region in Singapore it is an exceptional chance for investors to profit from the high demand potential of a developing Punggol Digital District,” said Julien Naouri, senior vice-president of investment sales at JLL who manages marketing for the property.
Naouri said that bidders can “develop their financial analysis” to determine the price minimum and then make an expression of interest.
The shell-and-core model “offers numerous opportunities for prospective investors to modify the property to suit their own specific needs and branding preferences” the spokesman added.
JTC is currently accepting offers of interest for acquisition, renovation and running of the hotel or serviced apartments. The exercise ends on Tuesday (Apr 30) at 1 pm.
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JTC replied to The Business Times‘s query that the building should obtain its Temporary occupancy permit by the fourth quarter 2024.
PDD will be open gradually from the second half of 2024. The project will comprise eating, retail and lifestyle facilities .
It will contain more than 2 million square feet of commercial office and park space as well as the Singapore Institute of Technology’s new campus. It is expected to create 28,000 jobs and bring in up to 12,000 students.
It is also within the proximity of the Seletar Aerospace Park and the Tampines regional hub.
UOB is the largest commercial investor of its kind in the district, is investing S$500m in the construction of a center of 300,000 sqft that will house 3,000 employees in the fields of technology, digital and innovation positions. The centre will be finished by 2026.
The injection of a hospitality component into a high-tech business park is based on a concept that JTC implemented about fifteen years ago at Changi Business Park.
JTC awarded Frasers Centrepoint (Singapore), and Ascendas Land Singapore a 60-year leasehold piece of land in Changi Business Park for S$150.8M or S$119/square ft per plot ratio. The site was intended for an integrated retail, hotel and business park.
In 2012, the 313-room Capri by Fraser hotel in Changi City opened. A mall named Changi City point was also constructed in the estate of a the business park.
Frasers Property Ltd purchased the 313 rooms in the joint venture in 2015 in exchange for S$203.4 Million. The mall was sold to Frasers Centrepoint Trust (FCT) and the business park component, to Ascendas Reit.
In 2023, FCT sold Changi City Point for S$338 million, reportedly to a Chinese investor.
BT published in January 2024 that Frasers had put the Capri hotel up for the sale. A joint venture (JV) including entities linked to two Hong Kong-based companies two Hong Kong-based companies – Far East Consortium International and Atelier Capital Partners – were reported to be performing exclusive due diligence for an eventual purchase. The JV is believed to include US-based global investor TPG Angelo Gordon. The hotel’s cost was estimated at around S$170million.
There’s at the very least one other hotel within Changi Business Park. Park Avenue Changi, which opened in 2013, has 171 rooms for hotel accommodation and 80 suites that are serviced.
