Tag Archives: Singapore Industrial

Supermarket? It only looks like one: owner

URA investigates Mustafa Warehouse for unauthorised change of use

It looks like a department store and supermarket facility but its owner insists that it isn’t.

Use of facility: Mustafa says its Kallang Pudding Road warehouse helps staff process home-delivery orders

The six-storey Mustafa Warehouse on Kallang Pudding Road has been around for more than five years now, but its first two levels were shuttered for many years, although it held warehouse sales on and off.

About three weeks ago, the doors to the first two levels were opened on a ‘permanent’ basis and this has raised the eyebrows of some competitors, who see a department store on the first level and a supermarket on the second with rows of cashier checkout counters – just like in a retail facility.

They say that by operating a retail business out of warehouse premises – which is not allowed under Singapore’s planning regulations – Mustafa is deriving an unfair advantage over other retailers that have to pay for more costly retail space.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has now begun investigating whether there has been an unauthorised change of use.

A URA spokesman said: ‘The subject premises at 8 Kallang Pudding Road is a six-storey building approved for warehouse use. We are currently investigating the subject premises and hence, it would not be appropriate for us to make any comments on the investigation at this point in time. Continue reading

CapitaLand sells two Kallang properties

Group now left with another two S’pore industrial assets in its portfolio

CAPITALAND has agreed to sell two of its industrial properties in Kallang for a total of $68 million to construction and industrial property development group Chiu Teng.

Likely gain: CapitaLand expects to book a gain of about $19.2 million on the completion of sale of Kallang Avenue Industrial Centre (above) and Kallang Bahru Complex (next)

The move, which is part of a strategy to divest non-core assets, leaves CapitaLand with just two industrial properties – Corporation Place in Jurong, in which it has a 75 per cent stake, and Technopark@Chai Chee, which it fully owns.

BT reported in November last year that the property giant was believed to be looking to sell its four industrial properties in Singapore either individually or as a portfolio.

Technopark had a book value of $210 million at end-2008. Corporation Place was understood to be worth about $80 million at end-June 2009.

A CapitaLand spokeswoman said: ‘We will continue to look into the possibility of divesting Corporation Place and Technopark at the appropriate time, for the right price and when target returns are met. However, as of now, we have no definitive plans for their sale.’

CapitaLand said in a news release yesterday that it expects to book a gain of about $19.2 million on the completion of sale of the two leasehold Kallang properties, which is expected to be next month.

Had the sale been effected on Jan 1, 2009, CapitaLand’s earnings per share for the nine months ended Sept 30 would have increased almost 10 per cent, from 4.1 to 4.5 cents. Continue reading