BT : Boon Keng Development makes top bid for Woodlands industrial site

Business Times - 22 Apr 2010

Boon Keng Development makes top bid for Woodlands industrial site

By UMA SHANKARI

BOON Keng Development made the top bid of $65.2 million for an industrial site at Woodlands Avenue 12 in a government tender which closed yesterday.

Boon Keng's bid, which works out to $75 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr), is 29 per cent higher than the second highest bid of $50.6 million ($58 psf ppr) submitted by TGFB Pte Ltd and more than twice the application bid which triggered the tender. There were six bids in all for the site from developers including Soilbuild Group and Wee Hur Holdings

The 60-year leasehold site was launched after an unnamed party committed to bid at least $25.0 million ($29 psf ppr) for it last month. The site has a maximum gross floor area of 868,628 sq ft.

'The strong GDP growth of 13.1 per cent year-on-year in Q1 2010, driven by a 30 per cent year-on-year surge in the manufacturing, has resulted in demand for new industrial space as evidenced by the six bids received by the Urban Redevelopment Authority,' said executive director of CBRE Research Li Hiaw Ho.

The top bid is also more than twice the winning bid for industrial sites in Woodlands in the past two years.

A 60-year leasehold industrial site at the junction of Woodlands Industrial Park E5/Avenue 4 was awarded to Wee Hur in July last year for $22.9 million, or $34 psf ppr. And before that, a 60-year leasehold site along Woodlands Industrial Park E5 was awarded to Soilbuild Group in July 2008 for $13.6 million, or $30 psf ppr.

Mr Li estimates that the breakeven cost for this development is estimated to be about $240 psf to $260 psf. In the first four months of 2010, strata-titled units in Admiralty Industrial Park, located along Woodlands Industrial Park E1, went for between $163 psf and $249 psf, CBRE's data shows.

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