Tag Archives: Singapore Hotels

Mitre site sold to Heeton group for about $121m

Posted on 14 Nov 2009 | Comments Off on Mitre site sold to Heeton group for about $121m

Price works out to almost $1,100 psf ppr for freehold residential plot

A CONSORTIUM led by Heeton Holdings is understood to have signed a deal to buy the freehold Mitre Hotel site at Killiney Road for about $121-122 million. The price works out to almost $1,100 per sq ft of potential gross floor area including an estimated development charge (DC) of $770,000.

Mitre Hotel: The Killiney Road site can be redeveloped into a new project with about 110 apartments

Jones Lang LaSalle is understood to have brokered the sale following a tender exercise that closed in September.

The 39,972 sq ft site is zoned for residential use with a 2.8 plot ratio – the ratio of maximum potential gross floor area to land area – under Master Plan 2008. There is a 10-storey height limit. The plot can be developed into a new project with about 110 units of an average size of 1,000 sq ft.

Analysts estimate that based on the unit land price of almost $1,100 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr), Heeton’s breakeven cost for a new apartment development could be about $1,600 psf.

The Mitre Hotel, which opened in 1948, stopped letting rooms when it lost its licence in 2002, according to earlier media reports.

The property – which is owned mostly by members of the Chiam family – was ordered to be put up for sale last year by the Court of Appeal, ending a 12-year legal tussle over its sale.

Market watchers said the last time the property was in the market was in August 2007 when it had a price tag of about $200 million or close to $1,800 psf ppr including an estimated $700,000 DC at the time.

Analysts also observe that the latest price of almost $1,100 psf ppr achieved for the property is a slight improvement on the $1,022 psf ppr (including DC) that Hoi Hup paid for the Killiney Apartments plot nearby in April 2007. Hoi Hup is now redeveloping that site into the Residences @ Killiney.

Heeton yesterday reported a 143 per cent year- on-year jump in net earnings for the nine months ended Sept 30, 2009 to $10.5 million.

The company is seeking shareholders’ approval for the disposal of five wet-market properties in Singapore to supermarket chain Sheng Siong.

Source : Business Times – 12 Nov 2009

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Kwek launches ‘cool’ Studio M hotel brand

Posted on 14 Nov 2009 | Comments Off on Kwek launches ‘cool’ Studio M hotel brand

He aims for 50 worldwide in five years, with first at Robertson Quay area

PROPERTY tycoon Kwek Leng Beng launched an ‘utterly cool’ hotel brand boasting a Singapore label yesterday. He aims to have at least 50 outlets across the world in five years.

The Studio M in Singapore brand is being unleashed through the Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (M&C) chain with the first to open at 3, Nanson Road in the Robertson Quay area around April next year.

Singapore could eventually have three to five Studio Ms, which Mr Kwek describes as a ‘cross-breed between a boutique hotel and the normal type of hotels’.

The brand will cater to mostly savvy business and leisure travellers but not tour groups, said Mr Kwek, who is executive chairman of Hong Leong Group, the parent of M&C.

Studio M outlets have been earmarked for the Middle East, India, China, Vietnam and possibly Britain – through management contracts and ownership.

The debut hotel at Nanson Road will cost $120 million and will be built on a site Hong Leong bought in late 2006. It paid $45.8 million, or $518 per sq ft of potential gross floor area, in the tender.

The hotel will have 365 rooms with interiors and open-air tropical decks designed by Italian architect Piero Lissoni.

‘It is chic, stylish, and you don’t have to pay a bomb for it,’ said Mr Kwek. ‘It is like a five-star hotel, but you pay four-star rates.’ Rates have not been finalised, but a room will likely cost $230 to $250 a night, he said.

Mr Kwek described the Studio M brand as ‘utterly cool’ and a ’21st century new generation type of hotel’ that will boast the best technology and pack efficiency into mostly standard rooms of 270 sq ft.

He hatched the idea of creating a new hotel brand about four years ago, and said the brand will fill a gap in the market here. There is increasing demand from business travellers who want a distinctive and unique experience from their hotel in addition to functional services such as wireless connectivity, he said.

Room rates here have fallen this year, and while the hotel market is not as good as in pre-crisis days, Mr Kwek said it is set to improve.

‘It is my belief that the IRs (integrated resorts) will bring different types of customers here,’ he said, adding that a second Studio M could be built within the next 12 months.

A likely venue is the sleepy Orchard Hotel Shopping Arcade. Mr Kwek said they are studying the possibility of converting it into a Studio M.

He also believes the central business district and the Bukit Timah area could support Studio M outlets. And as if Studio M is not enough, Mr Kwek wants to create another hotel chain as ‘the world is running out of brands’.

Creating another brand will allow M&C to leverage on its vast experience in running hotels across the world.

Source : Straits Times – 12 Nov 2009

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