Fragrance Group buys Katong Plaza for $180 mil with potential redevelopment into a new hotel
The various other property, located at Waterloo Street, will be a new 502-room lodging under the Handwritten Collection brand name of Accor. It is a redevelopment of the previous Min Yuan Apartments which Fragrance Team obtained 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 joined together, and URA approval was acquired for redevelopment into a 500-room resort.
Katong Plaza is alongside Roxy Square and the Grand Mercure Roxy Singapore. Different hotels close include Holiday Inn Express Singapore Katong, an IHG Hotel and Village Hotel Katong.
Fragrance Group can likely redevelop Katong Square into a new accommodation under among one of the Accor labels. Nevertheless, Katong Plaza lies in prime District 15 in the east and just 120m from the Marine Parade MRT Station on the Thomson-East Coast Line and the Parkway Parade shopping center.
The existing development spans a total land area of 34,044 sq ft with a gross plot ratio of 3.0. This calculates to a maximum gross flooring space of 102,132 sq ft.
“Our team believe this sale will certainly improve confidence in the collective sale sector as property developers still seek desirable land parcels,” states Lian.
Fragrance Group and its hospitality arm, Global Premium Hotels, are managed by billionaire property real estate investor and hotelier James Koh, the director of both business. Global Premium Hotels has a portfolio of brands, featuring the homegrown Fragrance and Parc Sovereign. In 2019, Fragrance and global hotel group Accor bound to open up 13 new ibis Budget accommodations, that were previously Fragrance-branded resorts, in addition to bringing in the ibis Styles and Mercure labels.
Real estate developer Fragrance Group has gotten Katong Plaza in Marine Parade for $180 million. The purchase price equates to a land rate of $1,809 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr), featuring the land betterment cost.
Katong Plaza is a freehold commercial and residential mixed-use project located at 1 Brooke Roadway. It has 132 strata retail units and 14 non commercial apartments. Owners of the retail units are going to be receiving earnings ranging from $502,000 to over $6 million, whereas home proprietors will be acquiring between $2 million and $5.1 million, indicates Terence Lian, Huttons Asia’s head of financial investment sales that agented the deal.
Last month, Fragrance Group and Global Premium Hotels signed another arrangement with Accor to open up 2 new-build properties with 3 new hotels by 2027. They are the 808-key Mövenpick Singapore on Hoe Chiang Road, which will certainly be the biggest Mövenpick hotel in the Asia Pacific location. It will certainly also house Mövenpick Living Singapore, a 37-key hotels targeted at tourists looking for lengthened stays.
It is currently zoned for business and residential use however has obtained URA authorization for resort use. Lian estimates that the new hotel can produce around 300 and 340 rooms.
