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THE Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday said it has accepted a successful application from a developer for a reserve-list hotel site at the corner of Unity Street and Clemenceau Avenue to be put up for tender.

The Singapore Tourism Board's 2015 vision aims to double visitor arrivals to 17 million and triple tourism receipts to $30 billion by 2015.

The developer has committed to bid at least $25 million during the tender for the 99-year leasehold site. This price works out to $210 per square foot of potential gross floor area.

A hotel consultant estimates that assuming the developer is looking to build a hotel with 190 rooms on the site, the $25 million minimum price translates to a breakeven cost of about $300,000 per hotel room. This reflects an estimated net yield of 6 to 8 per cent. Of course, it remains to be seen just how aggressive the bidding will be during the tender for the site. The tender is slated for launch in about two weeks and will close about eight weeks later.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) announcement yesterday that the reserve-list site had been triggered for tender is just within three weeks of the site being made available for application - the shortest period since the government introduced the reserve-list system in June 2001.

The previous record of five weeks was held for the Somerset Central site, whose tender closes in August.

Sites on the state's reserve list are released for tender only if there is a successful application by a developer with an undertaking to offer at least a minimum bid which is acceptable to the state.

Some property industry observers reckon the quick release of the Unity Street hotel site reflects improving investor interest in the Singapore hotel market on the back of bullish sentiment fuelled by the government's award last month of the the Marina Bay Integrated Resort site to Las Vegas Sands.

The Singapore Tourism Board's 2015 vision announced in January last year aims to double visitor arrivals to 17 million and triple tourism receipts to $30 billion by 2015.

URA said the Unity Street site is the first hotel plot to be triggered for sale from the government reserve list since the sale of a plot at Bras Basah Road/North Bridge Road, next to Carlton Hotel, in January last year.

The Unity Street hotel site is one of three hotel plots on the Government's reserve list for the first half of this year. There's still no news of a successful application of a hotel site at Sinaran Drive near Novena MRT Station which has been available for application since April.

The final plot, in the budget hotel/backpacker haunt of Bencoolen Street, will be offered later this month.