SPH-Kajima JV emerges as top bidder for Upper Serangoon Road site

Their subsidiaries bid $1.13b for the mixed development site.

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and Kajima Development has submitted the top bid for a leasehold mixed development at Upper Serangoon Road, Woodleigh at a price of $1.13b.

The bid was submitted by their subsidiaries Elara 1 Pte. Ltd. And Callisto 1 Pte. Ltd. The price is 1.2% above the second highest bid, submitted by a JV between Far East Civil Engineering and Sekisui House Ltd. There was a total of 12 bids submitted, including the winning bid.

The site is just adjacent to the current Woodleigh MRT station which is the North-East Line. The site area is 273,842 sq ft with a maximum gross floor area (GFA) 958,450 sq ft. This implies a price of $1,181 psf GFA. According to the tender details, close to 825 residential units can be built on the site.

It furthered that the ownership of cinemas not only provides a source of recurring income to the group but can lead to cost savings for the group as mm2 usually has to pay about 50% of its gross box office proceeds for rental of cinemas.

"Cinema operation is a profitable business, and may even be profitable even with less than 30% of the seats occupied," it concluded.