SINGAPORE – The iconic Golden Mile Complex building, with its terraced facade facing Nicoll Highway, is being proposed for conservation because of its historical and architectural significance, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said on Friday (Oct 9).

The decision, taken after a two-year study, starts the process to have it gazetted as a conserved building.

But to help ensure that the move will not inhibit a future collective sale, the URA, in an unusual move, is offering developers additional planning incentives, including a one-third increase in floor area with a waiver of part of its development charge (DC) and the option to adjust the boundary of the 1.3ha site.

In turn, developers have to abide by the conservation guidelines.

Most importantly, they have to retain the development’s landmark main building that is famed for its signature stepped terraces atop the podium facing Nicoll Highway.

Other key features that have to be kept include the stepped building profile and plinth-like profile on the side facing Beach Road.

The URA, however, assured builders that it is open to consider creative design ideas that respect the architectural and structural character of the building.

The decision to conserve the 47-year-old complex comes after two unsuccessful collective sales , both times with the same price tag of $800 million. Both tenders closed with no bids.

One of the major incentives is the URA letting the development have an increased total gross plot ratio of 5.6 for the site. This one-third increase in floor area is the equivalent of an additional 30-storey tower.

It will sit on the site of an existing multi-storey carpark adjacent to the main building.

Part of the DC for the extra floor area will be waived but capped at 10 per cent of the market value of the entire development, or 10 per cent of the estimated land value, based on the DC rate in last month’s revision, depending on the approved mix of use for the development, whichever is lower, the URA said.

Developers will also be given the option to adjust the site boundary to have a more regular-shaped site for optimal layout of the new tower.

These incentives come on top of the typical planning incentives for conserved buildings, in which DCs are waived for enhancement in value arising from a change of site use and a lease top-up to 99 years.

More than 7,000 buildings in Singapore have been conserved, many of which are in historic districts such as Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam.

The decision to conserve the strata-titled Golden Mile Complex comes after inputs gathered over two years by the URA from various stakeholders, heritage groups and industry players.

The 718-unit, 16-storey property in Beach Road is zoned for commercial use under the URA Master Plan 2014.

Golden Mile Complex was completed in 1973 and has about 48 years left on its lease. It was one of the first developments in Singapore to feature offices, shops and residences.

When it finds a developer in a collective sale, Golden Mile Complex will be Singapore’s first large-scale strata-titled conserved development to be sold.

SINGAPORE – Mandarin Gardens, a leasehold condominium in Siglap, has failed in its attempt to sell en bloc, despite a record high asking price of $2.927 billion.

On Sunday (March 24), the day the collective sales agreement expired, the agreement had only been signed by 68 per cent of the units, below the 80 per cent required for the land to be put up for sale.

The property’s collective sale committee chairman, Mr Vincent Teo, said in a letter to owners on Sunday that while the committee would be dissolved on Monday, he hoped that those who had signed the current agreement would support an attempt to form a new committee.

“This being our first attempt at collective sales, we have learnt valuable lessons, which will certainly be very helpful in our next journey,” he said.

An attempt in 2008 failed before a collective sale agreement was prepared, as the global financial crisis had started, he said.

Last month, the 1,017-unit leasehold condo raised its asking price to $2.927 billion to encourage more owners to agree to the collective sale.

It first raised its asking price to $2.788 billion in November last year from $2.479 billion after owners discovered that the land parcel was undervalued.

If the collective sale had gone through, it would have been the biggest transaction in dollar terms struck here.

Mr Teo said in the letter that the general feeling is that current market sentiment for collective sales is heading south, as evidenced by a lack of bids in the recent tender process of several large estates.

For example, Horizon Towers closed on Jan 28 after it was launched for a second time at the same reserve price of $1.1 billion.

But Mr Teo noted that should market sentiments permit, a fresh collective sale process can be initiated without having to wait for a two-year lapse period, if 50 per cent of owners by share value sign a requisition for a general meeting to form a new collective sale committee.

He said the committee would like to thank all the owners who voted for the collective sale and hoped that they will continue to support the effort when the next round of collective sale is launched, “hopefully in the not too distant future”.

He told The Straits Times on Monday (March 25) that among the reasons some owners did not want to sell is the attractiveness of the location, which is sea-facing and has an MRT station coming up nearby on the Thomson-East Coast Line.

“Some people also said it would be hard to find a replacement unit that is so spacious,” he said.

The units range from 732 sq ft to 3,800 sq ft.

Property expert Nicholas Mak, who is the executive director of ZACD Group, said that as Mandarin Gardens is such a large site, it would be an uphill task to get the required number of signatures for the collective sales agreement, compared with a small site of, say, 30 units.

The cooling measures implemented by the Government last July “knocked the wind out of the sails of quite a few en bloc sales”, he added.

SINGAPORE – Riding on the wave of the en bloc fever, four post-independence landmarks in Singapore, known for their gritty appearances, might disappear from the Republic’s landscape.

The fate of People’s Park Complex and People’s Park Centre in Chinatown, as well as Golden Mile Complex and Golden Mile Tower in Beach Road, hangs in the balance.

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