Saturday, September 09, 2006
[RealEdge] BT : CapitaLand responds to basement closure
| Published September 9, 2006  | |||
| CapitaLand responds to basement closure
By ARTHUR SIM
CAPITALAND has responded to criticism about the planned closure of the basement linkway between Orchard MRT Station and Wisma Atria. But it will be still have to be closed.
CapitaLand, together with Sun Hung Kai Properties, won the tender to redevelop the Orchard Turn site in December 2005. The construction of the new mixed development will require the linkway to Wisma Atria to be closed. There have been protests from tenants of the basement shops at Wisma Atria about the abrupt announcement. But after getting formal written permission from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to proceed with its plans yesterday, CapitaLand said that Macquarie MEAG Prime Real Estate Investment Trust - which owns 74 per cent of Wisma Atria - was told as early as March that it would be given one month's notice of any impending closure of the linkway. Pua Sek Guan, CEO of CapitaMall Trust (CMT) said that this information was being released in response to requests from several tenants at Wisma Atria, who are also tenants at CMT properties, for the linkway to be kept open. 'Some of them found out about the closure only when they read about it in newspaper reports and wondered why it was announced without much notice,' he said. On March 13, a licence agreement was signed between the owners of the Orchard Turn site and Macquarie MEAG Prime Reit manager Macquarie Pacific Star Prime Reit Management in which the basement linkway, which is part of the Orchard Turn site, would be leased on a short-term month-by-month basis. Mr Pua said that it had also met with the Wisma Atria owners in July to tell them that the linkway would be closed in mid-September, subject to approval from URA. On Aug 30, an official notice of the Sept 30 deadline for the linkway closure was sent after URA approval was granted a day earlier. The linkway is expected to be reinstated when the Orchard Turn development is completed towards the end of 2008 as it is also in CapitaLand's interests to expedite construction. Mr Pua said financing interest cost for the project amounts to $200,000 per day. | |||
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