Monday, 25 November, 2013 RESIDENTIAL MARKET Looking ahead to the Civic and Cultural District by the Bay The civic and cultural district, home to the former Supreme Court and City Hall Buildings, the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) and The Esplanade Theatres on the Bay, is envisioned as offering expansive spaces for pedestrians to linger under tree-lined boulevards, and opening up venues for outdoor performances. Come 2015, various enhancements, including the conversion of existing roads into pedestrian paths and enhancements at Empress Place and Esplanade Park, can be expected. Currently, the precinct is cut up by roads. To fulfil the vision of a walkable district, Parliament Lane and the small road at Empress Place (between ACM and Victoria Theatre) will be pedestrianised permanently. This will integrate the two spaces, creating a seamless park-like setting. Part of Fullerton Road - in front of Victoria Theatre and, incidentally, part of the Formula 1 track - will also be realigned, allowing for a larger and more elegant lawn space in front of Victoria Theatre/Concert Hall and ACM. In addition, Connaught Drive will be narrowed to one lane and limited to destination-bound traffic. Tourist coaches which currently park along Connaught Drive will be redirected to a new coach park at Marina Centre near the Marina Centre bus terminal. A new dedicated drop-off and pick-up point is planned. Other landscaping efforts, such as the planting of more trees to provide shade, better way-finding signs and upgrading of street furniture are also planned at Empress Place and Esplanade Park. In addition, the waterfront promenade along Esplanade Park will be opened up with stepped plazas and an urban beach, allowing people to get closer to the water. Various spaces, including Raffles Landing, will soon be equipped to host outdoor events. To facilitate this, in-built infrastructure is planned, which will allow for easier setting-up of events, pop-up structures and mobile kiosks. Night lighting will also be provided to support night activities. These plans are part of the Urban Redevelopment Authoritys (URA) PubliCity initiative, which aims to engage the community in celebrating good public spaces and to enliven public spaces through good design and programmes. In the longer term, URA is studying the possibility of closing Anderson Bridge, Fullerton Road, St Andrews Road and Parliament Place to through traffic, leaving it open to destination-bound traffic, public buses and pedestrians only. Other developments being studied include the temporary closure of Anderson Bridge, Fullerton Road, St Andrews Road, and Parliament Place to traffic during weekends or evenings for events. Elsewhere on the island, other upcoming enhancement projects include an environment improvement project at Bras Basah and Bugis, which will see the carriageways on a stretch along Queen Street narrowed and the sidewalks widened. More street furniture and trees are also planned, with works expected to be completed by mid-2014. Punggol Town Square and Bedok Town Centre will introduce new public spaces in Punggol and Bedok, respectively. In addition to creating new public spaces and rejuvenating existing ones, PubliCity wants to encourage ownership of these spaces. To this end, the public is being invited to re-imagine four public spaces. Specifically, ideas are being sought to enliven the open space beside Gedung Kuning in Kampong Glam, which measures about 1,200 square metres (sq m), and The Lawn @ Marina Bay, which measures about 13,000 sq m, as gathering spaces for the community. The third space comprises two plots along the Singapore River Promenade - a 2,600 sq m site beside High Street Centre and a 1,000 sq m site at Clarke Quay/River Valley Road on which part of G-Max and GX-5 are currently situated. It is intended for the latter site to be transformed into an attractive entry point to Clarke Quay. The 2,000 sq m Woodlands Civic Plaza, which is bounded by Causeway Point, Woodlands Civic Centre and two future developments, rounds up the list. The vision for the existing plaza space is a vibrant key node. Proposals should give ideas on how it can become a better public space for a diverse range of users who use the plaza for rest and respite and as a meeting place. The submission period is from Nov 22 to Feb 14. Up to 10 winners will each win $1,000 in cash. Separately, URA intends to launch the Pick a Bench, Pick a Place project in February next year. The public will be invited to vote for their favourite bench designs and where they would like to see the benches installed. The benches, which are made using seating planks from the former National Stadium, are the product of a design competition held in September last year. Source: Business Times –23 November 2013 Woodlands, Holland Village top picks Investors hoping to take advantage of the master plan out this week should look at Woodlands and Holland Village but hang fire on Kampong Bugis, Marina South, Serangoon Gardens and Jalan Kayu, said consultants. They added yesterday that while plans for Tanjong Pagar and the Greater Southern Waterfront were exciting, they would materialise only far into the future. Woodlands emerged as analysts top pick, mostly due to its upcoming development as a regional centre. It will house the first business park cluster in the north, under the draft master plan released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Wednesday. The Government will put a commercial plot near the Woodlands MRT site up for sale next month to kick-start the development of the Woodlands regional centre. Holland Village is another area ripe for investment, consultants said. The estate will be extended over the next two years and will get 1,500 new homes and a new community park while preserving its identity, the URA said. ERA Realty key executive officer Eugene Lim said owner-occupiers are likely to be attracted to the improved iconic urban-village lifestyle that Holland Village offers. Investors will be scouting for easily rentable units to the ready pool of good-quality tenants from the nearby Biopolis and Fusionopolis at One North, he added. Consultants preferred to take a wait-and-see approach on other areas mentioned in the master plan. Development plans for Kampong Bugis, Marina South and Tanjong Pagar will take several years to materialise while the revamp of Kampong Bugis will begin only after 2016 and Marina South after 2017 or 2018. The development of the Tanjong Pagar port area into part of the Greater Southern Waterfront is even further away and will happen only after 2027. Consultants were lukewarm on Serangoon Village and Jalan Kayu, noting that Serangoon Village was already an established mature estate and Jalan Kayu was rather inconvenient to get to. Source: The Straits Times –23November 2013 Bugis shines as Duo Residences sales soar Stellar sales last week at Duo Residences, near Kampong Glam, drew attention to the cultural precinct that has now become an eclectic neighbourhood. Kampong Glam is part of Bugis, a long-time commercial and office district, with landmarks such as Bugis Street and the National Library Building in Victoria Street. The latest data at property portal ST Property indicates Duo Residences garnered the highest number of page views by home buyers. The projects average asking price is $1,994 per sq ft (psf). A total of 574 units at the 660-unit residential development had been sold as of Nov 17. It is part of the Duo project by M+S, a joint venture between Temasek Holdings and Khazanah Nasional. Set to be the largest mixed- use project in the Bugis-City Hall area, Duo is expected to add to the areas bustle once it is completed in 2017. Close to the Central Business District (CBD) and Orchard Road shopping belt, projects in the area can command premium prices. On ST Property, Concourse Skyline came in at No.3 after Southbank, a mixed-use development in North Bridge Road. Source: The Straits Times –23November 2013 New Marina South draws keen interest The planned new district of Marina South with its promise of green touches such as bike paths and a vibrant street scene is already generating keen interest. Office workers and joggers who flock to nearby Marina Bay in the evening say they are looking forward to new dining options as well as longer, more scenic jogging routes. These are features that will entice Mr Simon Ho to visit the area. Mr Ho, who takes a daily walk from his home in Tiong Bahru to Marina Bay, said he would definitely extend his route down to the Marina South seafront. Mr Ho told The Straits Times during his walk on Wednesday: As long as theres connectivity, people will go. As someone who exercises frequently, you are always looking for a challenge in a longer distance. Marina Bay resident Efraim Goldberg hopes the new buildings will not block his view of the sea, although he noted that views are never guaranteed when you live in a small, crowded city. Singaporeans should have more places to walk, jog or cycle, added Mr Goldberg. Marina South will have cafes, restaurants and amenities that already dot the Central Business District, but in an even bigger way, according to ideas put forward in the Draft Master Plan 2013 released on Wednesday. The aim is to have an urban residential district characterised by fenceless private housing and mixed-use developments to encourage social interaction. The ideas also include an 800m pedestrian street and an underground mall linking the Marina South and Gardens by the Bay MRT stations. An elevated walkway leading from Bay South Garden to the Marina South seafront will also be built. A network of underground carparks connecting different buildings will reduce ground-level traffic and create a friendly environment for pedestrians and cyclists. The idea of having a wealth of dining and shopping options during the lunch hour appeals to many office workers employed near the Marina South site. However, bank worker Nicole Wong noted that dining by the waterfront could be costly, so she hopes a food centre will spring up too. Ms Belinda Koh, also a bank employee, said the extra carparks would ease the parking crunch in the city, although she suspects fees will not be cheap given the costs at Marina Bay. Property consultants have a more jaded view of the planners vision. They say the fenceless development proposed for the area is not unusual as this already exists in places such as Robertson Quay. It is also common to have residential buildings in Tanjong Pagar and Raffles Place without gated compounds. Source: The Straits Times –23November 2013 INDUSTRIAL MARKET Mapletree tops bids for Tai Seng site A unit of Mapletree Investments has put in the highest offer out of seven bidders for a plum 11.8-hectare industrial site next to Tai Seng MRT station. Mapletree Trustee placed a bid of $120.1 million, or $270.57 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr), for the 30-year leasehold plot at Tai Seng Street in the tender that closed yesterday. This was 13.5 per cent higher than the next highest bid of $105.8 million, or $238.35 psf ppr, from Ace-Industrial, linked to Far East Organization. The top offer was in line with earlier predictions from analysts, who expected anywhere from six to 16 bidders and a highest offer of between $250 psf ppr and $300 psf ppr. That the site will be directly linked to Tai Seng MRT station and its zoning as a Business 2-White site, which JTC Corporation said allows for a mixed-use project offering retail, F&B and office spaces, were also pull factors. The Tai Seng Street plot, which JTC said will form the epicentre of Paya Lebar iPark, has a maximum permissible gross plot ratio of 3.5. This works out to a maximum gross floor area (GFA) of around 443,800 square feet at the future development. Of this, some 28.6 per cent has been set aside for white use. JTC has stipulated that a portion of this white space be for retail use such as cafes and food courts to support the working community at Paya Lebar iPark. The rest of the GFA will be for Business-2 development, which allows for heavy industrial use. The Tai Seng plot is sold with a 7,920 sq ft strip to provide vehicular access for pick-up and drop-off, and 2,336 sq ft of underground space to be developed into a pedestrian link to the MRT station. The lowest bid for the tender for the site came from Eco-I, which bid $28.8 million, or $64.89 psf ppr. Source: Business Times –23 November 2013
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 13:42:05 +0000
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