40 years of Siglap

A 40-year-old mixed-use building in Siglap might be demolished very soon.

Siglap Shopping Centre. Credit: OrangeTee Advisory.

Siglap Shopping Centre will be put up for collective sale by public tender on Tuesday (Oct 27), with the reserve price for the freehold mixed-use site on East Coast Road set at S$120 million, marketing agent OrangeTee Advisory said on Monday.

Completed in around 1980, the three-storey development at 883 to 903A East Coast Road is made up of eight residential units and eight commercial units sitting on about 39,635 sq ft of land.

An adjoining plot (roughly 5,005 sq ft) of state land can be amalgamated with the site, subject to approval from authorities, to form a site with a combined area of about 44,640 sq ft.

Siglap Shopping Centre, not to be confused with the nearby Siglap Centre, is currently occupied by a variety of tenants including eateries and a pre-school.

The tender will close at 3pm on Dec 9.

“With its freehold tenure and location in popular District 15, the site is likely to see good interest from developers,” said Mr Edmund Lee, executive director of OrangeTee Advisory.

“The optimal site area, coupled with a frontage of about 60 metres onto East Coast Road, offer developers the opportunity to build a prominent mixed-use development to cater to the lifestyle demands of buyers.”

Based on the reserve price, the land rate works out to S$1,235 per square foot per plot ratio, after accounting for an additional 7 per cent bonus residential gross floor area for private outdoor spaces.

The figure of S$120 million includes an estimated development charge of S$47.47 million and an estimated alienation cost of S$7.2 million for the plot of state land.

According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s 2019 Master Plan, the site is zoned as residential with commercial on the first storey.

The gross plot ratio is 3.0, and the building height control is four storeys.

The site is close to several schools and malls, as well as Parkway East Hospital, and will be served by the upcoming Siglap MRT station on the Thomson-East Coast Line.

OrangeTee Advisory director Mr Tay Liam Hiap said that new projects in the area have been a popular choice for home buyers.

“New project sales in the East Coast area have been trending well, and attest to the continued appeal of the Siglap/Katong district with its plethora of dining, shopping and recreational amenities,” he said.

“The proximity to beaches, parks and Changi Airport further amplifies the attractiveness and draw of the area to home buyers.”

***

I looked up Siglap Shopping Centre on Google Maps and found something resembling more a row of shophouses than a conventional shopping centre. Going through Google Street View’s history reveals a little slice of the building’s history.

In 2008, its tenants included Pizza Hut, Video Ezy, a United Overseas Bank (UOB) branch, a Thai restaurant named Lemongrass, KFC, and another restaurant, Le Viet. The building also had a smaller cousin to the left, possibly constructed at the same time.

2008. Credit: Google Maps.

By 2012, the building’s smaller cousin had been torn down for a new condominium (what else?), Siglap V. Video Ezy and Le Viet had departed; Video Ezy’s space was taken by Feet Press, a foot reflexology centre.

2012. Credit: Google Maps.

By 2015, UOB had moved out; a Chinese restaurant and a sales gallery had set up shop on either side of the KFC outlet.

2015. Credit: Google Maps.

And by 2019, Pizza Hut had been replaced by two restaurants, UOB’s space had been taken by a preschool, and the two tenants on either side of KFC had been replaced by a bar and a bike distributor.

2019. Credit: Google Maps.

This meant that of all the commercial tenants that were around in 2008, only KFC had stuck around by 2019.

And a search of the newspaper archives reveals that KFC was one of Siglap Shopping Centre’s first tenants when it opened in 1980! Below is a Straits Times advertisement from 12 December 1980, announcing the outlet’s official opening.

The KFC outlet is still open presently:

40 years of fried chicken in Siglap!

Unfortunately, it might have to move out, along with its neighbours, very soon. And the history of this little stretch along Upper East Coast Road will roll on, relentlessly.

Changing Caldecott Hill

Urban redevelopment will be coming soon to the Caldecott area.

Mediacorp has finally put up for sale the sprawling site that formerly housed the Caldecott Broadcast Centre in Andrew Road.

Credit: The Straits Times.

The sale, via a public tender exercise, will close on Dec 9.

Spanning 752,015 sq ft, the site served as the broadcast hub for more than six decades until 2015, when Mediacorp relocated to the Mediapolis in one-north.

The media organisation was granted an outline approval by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to redevelop the site, located in the Caldecott Hill good class bungalow (GCB) area, into two-storey bungalows with a minimum land area of 800 sq m per house.

It appointed an architect to work out a subdivision scheme for the 7ha site, accommodating 67 bungalow plots, subject to approval.

GCBs are detached houses located within one of the 39 designated zones and have a minimum land area requirement of 1,400 sq m.

But there can be houses within these designated areas which do not meet the minimum size.

The site, currently zoned for civic and community institution use under the URA’s Master Plan 2019, will have to be rezoned to residential use, which will entail payment of a differential premium (DP) to the state.

The leasehold site currently has a balance lease term of 73 years, which means the developer would also need to pay a lease upgrading premium (UP) to the Singapore Land Authority for the lease to be extended to a fresh 99-year tenure.

An application has been made for an in-principle approval for the lease to be extended.

Mr Karamjit Singh, chief executive of Showsuite Consultancy, one of the two consultants appointed to advise and market the property, said: “The gross land value for a proposed bungalow redevelopment on site is expected to be in excess of $400 million including DP and UP, which would translate to a land rate in the region of $540 per sq ft. The net land value could be in excess of $260 million.”

Based on the proposed scheme of 67 bungalows, the land cost would work out to about $6 million per land plot.

At this price, a developer may break even at about $9 million to $10 million per bungalow.

The detached houses are expected to be priced between $11 million and $14 million, subject to design and configuration.

“These ‘junior GCBs’ would cater to the underserved mid-tier segment of detached houses - the market between GCBs and entry-level bungalows,” Mr Singh said.

There has been no large-scale project of brand-new GCBs, junior or conventional, for a very long time.

The closest proxy would be bungalows at Sentosa Cove, which were launched between 2005 and 2010. As a result, the number of detached houses in Singapore has remained stagnant over decades.

“It was 10,000 plus 25 years ago and it remains 10,000 plus today. This represents less than 1 per cent of the country's total housing stock. During the same period, the average household net wealth has increased by over 300 per cent,” Mr Singh said.

Mr Michael Tay, head of capital markets, Singapore, at CBRE, the other consultant to the project, said: “There is a growing generation of buyers who see the more affordable leasehold properties as an opportunity to tie down less capital for their homes, while achieving their aspirational goals.

“In so doing, they free up capital to invest in another property for rental income.”

He added: “In addition to the bungalow redevelopment potential, we understand that URA may also be prepared to consider a proposal for the site to be redeveloped into a retirement village, subject to detailed evaluation.”

But Mr Singh said: “Buyers seeking to convert the property to a retirement village would need to consult and submit a proposal to the planning authorities.

“That said, we do believe the property would likely be redeveloped into bungalows as there are more housing developers than retirement village investors.”

Credit: The Straits Times.

The bungalows should fetch very good prices, as Caldecott Hill has an ideal geographical location - it’s a hill, near the geographical centre of Singapore Island, right next to the greenery of Bukit Brown, MacRitchie Reservoir, and the Central Catchment Area, and yet near Caldecott MRT Station (soon to be an interchange).

Base picture credit: Google Maps.

Caldecott Hill is part of an extensive cluster of hills south of MacRitchie Reservoir and west of Thomson Road. In the 1920s, the hill was covered by rubber plantations, while the hills to its west were part of the Bukit Brown municipal cemetery; Mount Pleasant to its south hosted colonial black-and-white mansions.

Base map credit: The National Archives, United Kingdom.

In the late 1930s, a housing estate of 70 dwellings was built on part of the hill. That was when the hill, and the estate, acquired the name Caldecott, after British colonial administrator Sir Andrew Caldecott (1884-1951).

The Straits Times reported on Caldecott Hill Estate’s construction in 1937:

In 1966, Mediacorp’s predecessor, Radio and Television Singapore, arrived at Caldecott Hill, moving into a new $3.6-million Television Centre, where it remained until the shift to one-north in 2015.

***

Following news of the sale of the Caldecott site, a Straits Times Forum writer submitted this letter:

It is disappointing that the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has granted an outline approval to redevelop the 752,015 sq ft Caldecott Broadcast Centre site into two-storey bungalows (Mediacorp’s former Caldecott Hill home put up for sale, Oct 15).

Allowing for the development of an exclusive and gated community serves to accentuate the rich-poor divide.

It was mentioned that URA may also be prepared to consider a proposal for the site to be redeveloped into a retirement village.

The concept of a retirement village has not taken off, and locating it on a hilltop will pose accessibility issues for the elderly. A recently proposed dementia village in Sembawang also failed to take off, receiving only one bid, which was rejected as the offer price was deemed too low.

Perhaps inspiration can be drawn from other similar hilltop sites. Take, for example, Fort Canning with its hilltop capped with a colonial-era service reservoir. Pearl's Hill City Park also features another service reservoir.

The hilltop site in Caldecott can maintain the current zoning for civic and community institution use, coupled with the incorporation of a sizeable park and a service reservoir to increase Singapore’s water catchment as we strive further to be more self-sufficient in our water sourcing and needs.

Another idea would be to consider the site for a second infectious diseases centre, surrounded by lush and sizeable parkland, to expand upon the current success of the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

The past has shown us that hilltop sites are preferred for hospital developments for ease of disease containment and treatment. Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Singapore General Hospital are both set on top of hills.

An alternative is to expand the Mount Alvernia Hospital campus located just across the road as the current site has reached its development potential and space constraints.

The authorities could launch a design competition for ideas and to seek local architecture firms’ input and creativity to harness the maximum potential of the site.

This would be better than the land owner’s appointment of its preferred architect to plan out the space for the development of good class bungalows, which excludes any public engagement and does nothing to bridge the rich-poor divide.

I don’t see Mediacorp budging from its plans, though. If it owns the lease for the land, why would it give up the golden opportunity to make tons of money from high-end bungalows? This is Singapore Inc., where the city-state is run like a corporation.

The abandoned Caldecott Broadcast Centre. Credit: Finbarr Fallon.

When rail fails

This week, Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung experienced his first major crisis since taking on the hot potato portfolio on 27 July - the worst MRT breakdown in three years.

It all started with the failure of the insulation of a power cable between Tuas Link and Tuas West Road MRT stations on the East West Line - a relatively new stretch of track which opened just three years ago.

A circuit breaker at Tuas West Road MRT Station should have acted to isolate the fault, but did not. This tripped the power systems of both the East West and North South lines, shutting down large stretches of the lines at 7pm - during the evening peak hour, when tens of thousands were on the move. Train stations suffered blackouts, and commuters were stranded on trains.

SMRT Corporation - which ran both lines - then tried to draw power from the Buona Vista Intake substation, which also serves the Circle Line (also managed by them). However, this was done without first isolating the initial fault. Hence, a good part of the Circle Line also suffered a power fault at 7.30pm, shutting down more stations.

A blacked-out Jurong East MRT Interchange. Credit: The Straits Times.

In all, 34 stations were temporarily put out of commission - between Woodlands and Jurong East on the North South Line, between Queenstown and Gul Circle on the East West Line, and between HarbourFront and Serangoon on the Circle Line. Singapore has 122 MRT stations, so that was more than a quarter of all stations shut down in one fell swoop. Service on the Circle Line resumed at 8.40pm, but it was not until 10.35pm when full service resumed on the other two lines.

Credit: The Straits Times.

Around 123,000 commuters were affected, of which 6,700 were stuck on stranded trains for up to three hours - “de-training” was delayed because of heavy rain (because it never rains, it pours).

De-training near Jurong East MRT Interchange. Credit: The Straits Times.

De-training near Kranji MRT Station. Credit: Julie Chan.

Mainstream and online media reported widespread chaos in the west of the island. Many commuters were confused as to what was going on. There was concern about the absence of social distancing as bus stops overflowed with thousands trying to take alternate public transport.

The crowd at Queenstown MRT Station. Credit: The Straits Times.

Credit: @meteorjeon.

In my opinion, Minister Ong weathered the crisis fairly well, for three reasons: He’s new, so the public cut him some slack; it’s the first major breakdown affecting so many commuters for some time, so people are in a more forgiving mood; he apologised quite readily.

He said: “It was a rough night for many people, especially the commuters, and we are sorry for the troubles caused.”

Credit: Channel NewsAsia.

But as SMRT, fellow MRT operator SBS Transit, and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) can vouch - in the eyes of the public, you’re only as good as your last major breakdown.

It’s understandable. Singapore relies so, so heavily on the MRT. Pre-COVID-19, the MRT enjoyed ridership figures of 3.592 million every day, outmatched only by the public bus with 4.099 million rides a day. However, unlike the public bus, the MRT’s ridership is far more vulnerable to disruption from a single incident. If a public bus breaks down, it usually does not shut down the whole road, and at most a few dozen people are inconvenienced. But if a train breaks down, the entire line and thousands of commuters could be affected.

Furthermore, a large proportion of commuters have little choice but to take the MRT. They may not have cars, or cannot afford cars or private-hire vehicles; travelling by bus may take significantly longer travelling time. So when something goes seriously wrong with the only travelling option they have, the natural reaction is anger and frustration.

Still, the MRT is doing a lot better now than five to 10 years ago. Today, one disruption takes place for every 1.6 million train-km travelled - more than 10 times the distance clocked in 2015. My book Jalan Singapura documents numerous incidents which once plagued the system. For example, multiple breakdowns in 2011 uncovered significant shortcomings in SMRT’s maintenance regime. In 2015, a power trip shut down much of the North South and East West lines, affecting 250,000 commuters. And 2017 would be remembered for two notorious milestones - unprecedented flooding of North South Line tunnels, causing an overnight shutdown of train services, and a train collision on the East West Line - only the second in the MRT’s history - injuring 38 people. Thankfully, the painful lessons learned, and preventive maintenance regimes, have largely consigned such failures to history.

The flooding of the North South Line, 7 October 2017.

I say “largely”, because this week happened. And it’s troubling that a simple issue escalated to monumental proportions - a combination of premature failure of hardware and human error.

The Straits Times also questioned “why the recovery process took so long”. “Granted, the wet weather may have made the task trickier for surface lines, but it should not have impeded tunnel evacuation... SMRT would have honed its recovery skills by now, seeing how it was never short of practice.”

Ouch.

I hope SMRT, LTA, and the Transport Ministry work together to try to prevent a similar incident from happening again. Once in several years is still bearable, but throw in two or three more major incidents in quick succession, and the public will not be as forgiving towards their leaders - Minister Ong included.