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Published December 24, 2010

Roxy-Pacific buys Everitt Building for $35.5m

It's the firm's second major property acquisition in Changi Rd area over 2 mths

By KALPANA RASHIWALA


ROXY-PACIFIC has inked a deal to buy Everitt Building at 116 Changi Road for $35.5 million.

The price for the 10-year-old freehold property, which is about 380 metres from Eunos MRT Station, works out to $877 per square foot based on its net lettable area (NLA) of about 40,468 square feet.

The building's existing gross floor area (GFA) of 50,892 sq ft reflects a 3.0 plot ratio over its land area of 16,965 sq ft. This is the maximum allowed under the Master Plan 2008.

Hence instead of looking at a redevelopment angle, Roxy-Pacific is expected to be more likely to study the possibility of additions and alteration works to try and increase the NLA within the existing property, thus raising the efficiency (ratio of NLA to GFA) from about 79.5 per cent currently.

The building is currently fully let. It was sold by a company controlled by two Singapore investors. CKS Property Consultants brokered the sale through a private treaty deal.

Everitt Building comprises four storeys, an attic level as well as a basement level. The first storey has showroom and retail units while the upper levels comprise offices. There are 32 carpark lots in the basement.

Everitt Building is Roxy-Pacific's second major property acquisition in the Changi Road area over the past couple of months. In November, it teamed up with Macly Capital and other partners to buy the former Singapura Theatre site at 55 Changi Road for $44.9 million from Shaw Brothers. The plan is to redevelop the freehold site into a mall to capitalise on its proximity to Geylang Serai market and Eunos MRT Station.

Roxy-Pacific also plans to redevelop Kovan Centre in Yio Chu Kang - which it bought last year - into Space @ Kovan, which will have 140 apartments and 56 commercial units.

Earlier this year, Roxy-Pacific took a stake in a consortium that bought Marina House at Shenton Way for $148 million. Planning approval has been granted to redevelop the site into a new project with a 40:60 residential:commercial GFA split.

More immediately, Roxy-Pacific is expected to launch the freehold Spottiswoode 18 on the former Dragon Mansion site near Tanjong Pagar. The 36-storey residential tower on the site will comprise 251 apartments ranging from 387 sq ft to 1,324 sq ft.

Spottiswoode 18 will be near UOL Group's Spottiswoode Residences, which was released last month. To date, more than 80 per cent of the 351-unit freehold development has been sold.