Orchard Road site has been sold

The highlighted comments link nicely to the previous post on Orchard Road development and timing options.

Lend Lease Places Highest Bid for Singapore Site

Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Lend Lease Corp., Australia's largest property developer, placed the highest bid of S$617.2 million ($391 million) for a downtown Singapore retail site, the city- state's government said.

The site, located along the Orchard Road shopping belt, can be developed into a 39,410-square-meter (424,052-square-foot), 16-story building, of which 60 percent has to be set aside for retail and entertainment, Singapore's Urban Redevelopment Authority said in an e-mailed statement today...

"This will set a new benchmark for Orchard Road,'' said Nicholas Mak, research director at Knight Frank Pte, a property consulting company in Singapore. "The bidding was very bullish because the developers are expecting positive spillovers from the integrated resorts...

"The number of tenders as well as the maximum price of S$617.2 million is a very clear indication of the developer's confidence in the potential growth of Orchard Road and the retail cum tourism scene in Singapore," said Li Hiaw Ho, executive director at CBRE Research, a property brokerage in Singapore.