A-REIT – BT

A-Reit tops bid for site at Fusionopolis

Total of seven bids, ranging from Cambridge trust’s $50.38m to A-Reit’s $110m

A-Reit’s bid of $110 million, or $4,397.89 per square metre per plot ratio (psm ppr), was 29 per cent above the next-highest bid of $85.24 million, by Marina Trust trustee Mapletree Trustee Pte Ltd, and more than double the lowest bid of $50.38 million, by Cambridge Industrial Trust.

If awarded the site, A-Reit will develop it into a modern business facility with 25,000 square metres of gross floor area – comprising 60 per cent business park space and 40 per cent office space, it said yesterday.

The facility will cater to tenants in the infocomm technology and media industries as well as research and development activities in physical science and engineering, A-Reit said.

The site, which lies within the 200-hectare one-north development housing research facilities and business parks, has a 60-year land lease and is on the confirmed list of the government’s industrial land sales programme for the first half of this year.

It has a maximum plot ratio of four and can be developed up to 160 metres above sea level.

The site is also within walking distance of the one-north MRT station that is expected to open in the fourth quarter of this year.

The sale of the site for the third phase of the Fusionopolis development within one-north marks its latest expansion since the completion of the first phase in 2008.

The second phase is currently in development.

‘The strategic location of the site will reinforce A-Reit’s presence and market share within the business and science parks segment while achieving economics of scale in operations,’ A-Reit said in a statement.

Other bidders for the site included a joint venture of Ho Lee Properties and ZACD Investments, which submitted a bid of $83.1 million, and Far East Organization unit Tuas Hi-Tech Park Pte Ltd, which bid $64.78 million.

Two other Singapore developers – Ho Bee Investment and Soilbuild Group – also put in their own bids. Ho Bee bid $60.18 million, while Soilbuild offered $54.12 million.