Thursday, December 07, 2006
[RealEdge] BT : SC Global to go ahead with plan to build 200 Newton
| Published December 7, 2006  | ||||||||||
| SC Global to go ahead with plan to build 200 Newton Besides offices, it will have medical suites, drive-in banking hall and car showroom SC GLOBAL Developments has decided to develop the former Shell petrol station site at Newton Road into an office building with medical suites, with potential for a high-end car showroom and drive-in banking hall at street level. When completed in late 2008, the nine-storey freehold building, designed by award-winning SCDA Architects, would have a value of about $80 million, assuming it fetches about $8 per-square-foot (psf) net average rent, with investors wanting a 5 per cent yield, say analysts. The new development will be named 200 Newton. 'We're going to build a jewel that will help rejuvenate the corner of Newton and Thomson roads,' SC Global chairman and chief executive officer Simon Cheong said in an interview with BT. The listed developer bought the 15,490-sq-ft freehold site for $13.5 million in August 2005, reflecting a unit land price of about $291 psf of potential gross floor area. Market watchers reckon the company could pump in a further sum of about $15 million in construction costs, and fees, to redevelop the site, reflecting an all-in break-even cost of about $650 psf. "We're going to build a jewel that will help rejuvenate the corner of Newton and Thomson roads.' 200 Newton, which will have two basement levels for car parking, will have a total gross floor area of 46,470 sq ft. Mr Cheong said that the building's net lettable area will be close to this figure, as SC Global is planning to have just one tenant per floor. There will be about 5,000 sq ft per per floor. Earlier this year, SC Global put up the freehold site for sale, but based on the bids it received, SC Global decided it could extract more value for its shareholders if it proceeded to redevelop the site. 'We are very good for catching market sentiment and right now, the sentiment for office buildings is very bullish. There'll be a huge shortage of offices next year with several buildings coming down,' Mr Cheong said. The new building will be next to one of the exits to the Novena MRT station across the road. 'We envisage a building potentially with offices for, say, advertising firms, accounting firms, and medical suites on the upper floors. The ground level will have a 7-m ceiling height, which could make for a car showroom for high-end marques like Lamborghini, Aston Martin and Bentley. And there's potential for a banking hall, possibly a drive-in, on the same level. In fact, the location provides a huge captive market for a banking hall,' Mr Cheong said. | ||||||||||
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