ST : Paramount Hotel site up for sale again

Oct 14, 2010

Paramount Hotel site up for sale again

By Joyce Teo



THE freehold site occupied by Paramount Hotel and Paramount Shopping Centre is up for collective sale with the same asking price as that three years ago - $200 million.

Located near the popular Parkway Parade mall in the east, the plot boasts frontage along both Marine Parade and East Coast roads.

The ageing 229-room hotel and 95 shops that the land currently hosts are housed in a four-storey podium and an eight-storey tower block.

Marketing agent Jones Lang LaSalle said the 102,685 sq ft site - which the owners unsuccessfully tried to sell in 2007 - has a gross plot ratio of up to 3.0 and an indicative price of $200 million.

The firm said the land currently zoned for hotel use could be redeveloped into a hotel-cum-retail development, with a gross floor area of up to 308,056 sq ft and up to 460 hotel rooms.

Jones Lang LaSalle's national director and head of commercial investments, Ms Quek Soh Hoon, said the site - located in an established residential area - can be converted to residential use, albeit at a lower gross plot ratio of 2.1.

She said it could take a high-rise tower with 205 residential apartments, assuming a unit size of 1,000 sq ft.

Assuming 60 per cent of the site is redeveloped into a hotel with the rest earmarked for commercial use, the vendors' asking price for the land parcel would work out to $691 per sq ft (psf) per plot ratio.

This is inclusive of a development charge of about $12.8 million.

But if a potential buyer wants to build a condominium on the site, the asking price would work out to $1,113 psf, inclusive of a higher development charge of $40 million, said Ms Quek.

In this case, condo units may have to be sold at $1,900 to $2,000 psf - a new benchmark level for the area.

Singapore-based YTC Corporation owns Paramount Hotel as well as a few shop units, while the other shops are owned by different individuals.

YTC also owns Peninsula Excelsior Hotel in Coleman Street.

The tender closes on Nov 23.