Fragrance Group buys Katong Plaza for $180 mil with potential redevelopment into a new hotel
Real property developer Fragrance Team has obtained Katong Plaza in Marine Parade for $180 million. The transaction price converts to a land rate of $1,809 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr), including the land betterment charge.
Katong Plaza is a freehold commercial and residential mixed-use development located at 1 Brooke Road. It has 132 strata retail units and 14 household flats. Proprietors of the retail units will be receiving earnings varying from $502,000 to over $6 million, while home owners will be acquiring between $2 million and $5.1 million, mentions Terence Lian, Huttons Asia’s head of investment sales who brokered the agreement.
The existing development spans an overall land area of 34,044 sq ft with a complete plot ratio of 3.0. This works out to a highest gross flooring area of 102,132 sq ft.
Fragrance Group and its hospitality arm, Global Premium Hotels, are managed by billionaire real property real estate investor and hotelier James Koh, the chairman of both companies. Global Premium Hotels has a portfolio of brands, featuring the homegrown Fragrance and Parc Sovereign. In 2019, Fragrance and international hotel team Accor locked up to open 13 new ibis Budget hotels, that were previously Fragrance-branded hotels, in addition to generating the ibis Styles and Mercure labels.
The various other property, situated at Waterloo Street, will be a new 502-room resort under the Handwritten Collection brand name of Accor. It is a redevelopment of the previous Min Yuan Apartments that Fragrance Team acquired en bloc for $141 million in September 2019; and the former Waterloo Apartments, which it acquired in November 2018 for $131.1 million. Both 999-year leasehold sites were integrated, and URA approval was acquired for redevelopment into a 500-room hotel.
Katong Plaza is beside Roxy Square and the Grand Mercure Roxy Singapore. Other inns nearby include Holiday Inn Express Singapore Katong, an IHG Hotel and Village Hotel Katong.
“We believe this purchase will boost assurance in the cumulative sale market as builders remain to pursue appealing land plots,” claims Lian.
Last month, Fragrance Group and Global Premium Hotels signed an additional arrangement with Accor to open two new-build real estates with three brand-new lodgings by 2027. They are the 808-key Mövenpick Singapore on Hoe Chiang Road, that will certainly be the largest Mövenpick lodging in the Asia Pacific location. It will additionally house Mövenpick Living Singapore, a 37-key lodging intended at travellers looking for lengthened stays.
Fragrance Group could likely redevelop Katong Square into a new hotel under among one of the Accor brands. Besides, Katong Plaza lies in top District 15 in the east and only 120m from the Marine Parade MRT Stop on the Thomson-East Coast Line and the Parkway Parade shopping mall.
It is presently zoned for commercial and residential use but has obtained URA authorization for resort usage. Lian quotes that the brand-new hotel could generate of 300 and 340 rooms.
