Upper Changi, River Valley sites up for tender

Published March 8, 2007

Upper Changi, River Valley sites up for tender

By VINCENT WEE

IN further moves to ease the shortage of office space, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is putting up for tender two more state properties for office use today.

Following last month's release of the former police headquarters at Pearl's Hill Terrace, the Singapore Land Authority is now asking for bids for the offices of the former Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) at Upper Changi Road North and the former River Valley Primary School at River Valley Road.

The former CAAS office site has an estimated land area of about 1,456 square metres and a gross floor area of 1,027 sq m. The property comprises a two-storey building and the tenancy is for an initial term of three years and is renewable on terms up to 2012. It is envisaged that the site will attract aviation businesses and office users of non-Central Business District areas.

The River Valley Road site, on the other hand, is located within the Central Business District area. It has an estimated land area of about 17,590 sq m, which is roughly the size of two football fields. The gross floor area is 4,390 sq m. The property comprises a single-storey building block and two blocks of three-storey buildings with two-storey wings, canteen and substation. The tenancy is for an initial term of three years and is renewable on terms up to 2013. Both tenders will close on March 30.

'The former school is the first school to be adapted for dedicated office space to ease the shortage of office space, and it could well pave the way for more of such properties to be used for office space,' said SLA director of land operations, Simon Ong.

SLA announced last month that six state properties would be released for office use. The total estimated gross floor area to be let out for the first half of the year is about 43,000 sq m.

The authority will assess the market response and take-up rate for these two properties before deciding whether more properties dedicated solely to office use should be released in the second half of the year.