March 22, 2006
Boon Lay site to have $720m mixed development
Project includes a new mall, air-conditioned bus interchange and a 620-unit condominium
By Joyce Teo
Property Correspondent
A $720 million integrated project is being planned for a site next to Boon Lay MRT Station, with a mall that will be amalgamated with the existing Jurong Point to create the largest suburban mall in Singapore.
Planned for completion in 2008 to 2009, the 99-year leasehold project will feature an air-conditioned bus interchange, a 620-unit condominium targeted at HDB upgraders and a 290,000 sq ft mall.
It will be developed by Prime Point Realty Development, which is a venture between Lee Kim Tah Holdings, Guthrie GTS and TMW PCCW, a German investment fund managed by Pramerica Real Estate Investors (Asia).
Lee Kim Tah and Guthrie also own the existing Jurong Point mall.
The integrated project will be linked to the popular 410,000 sq ft Jurong Point from basement two through to level two. Currently, Jurong Point already attracts around three million visitors a month.
Starmall Property Management, the property manager of Jurong Point, told The Straits Times that average rentals at the new mall are expected to be around $11 per sq ft (psf), comparable to current rents at Jurong Point and just below rents at Tampines Mall.
The new mall, when combined with Jurong Point, will offer a total lettable space of more than 700,000 sq ft. This will create the biggest mall in the heartlands, Starmall said.
Tampines Mall, another popular suburban mall, has a net lettable space of about 321,700 sq ft.
Vivocity in the HarbourFront area, which will be Singapore's largest mall when it opens later this year, will have a lettable space of 1.1 million sq ft.
Revealing details of its plans for the Boon Lay site, Starmall said the air-conditioned bus interchange will be on level one of the integrated project. Level two is likely to be taken up by a hypermarket.
Level three is where condo facilities, such as a swimming pool and tennis courts, as well as the 12 blocks of apartments will be built.
Called The Centris, the condo is expected to be completed by mid-2009.
The bulk of the 620 units planned are two- to three-bedroom apartments, with the rest being four-bedroom units. The apartments will range from 800 sq ft to 1,500 sq ft.
Prime Point is planning to launch The Centris in September, but may hold a preview as early as June.
But market-watchers noted that the property market recovery has not quite filtered down to the HDB upgraders' market, which will cap the price The Centris can fetch.
Unless the upgraders' market picks up substantially, Prime Point is likely to sell many of the apartments there for around $500 psf, they said.
Property consultancy Knight Frank's research director, Mr Nicholas Mak, added that some of the recent transactions in the Lakeshore and Lakeholmz area have averaged between $480 and $520 psf.
'But this project is quite unique. The only other similar one is Compass Point in Sengkang,' he said.
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