Lion City Hotel, Hollywood Theatre sites up for sale

Published December 2, 2010

Lion City Hotel, Hollywood Theatre sites up for sale

By EMILYN YAP

(SINGAPORE) Lion City Hotel, a 42-year- old landmark in Tanjong Katong, could be making way for new developments. The hotel and the former Hollywood Theatre next to it have been put up for sale by the family of the late property magnate Wee Thiam Siew.

Landmark Property Advisers and Knight Frank are marketing the freehold sites and expect them to fetch more than $300 million.

Lion City Hotel was built in 1968 and the Wee family has been operating it. The 166-room building is a few minutes' walk from Paya Lebar MRT station.

Crowds flocked to the vicinity in the early 1970s as it was home to one of Singapore's earliest department stores run by Emporium. The hotel remained standing even as the area lost some of its lustre over the years.

Next to the hotel is the former Hollywood Theatre, which has its own colourful past. Movie stars such as Fung Bo Bo and Siao Fong Fong had made appearances there decades ago.

The theatre stopped screening films in the 1990s and was at one point home to City Harvest Church. Today, a food centre and a Sheng Siong supermarket occupy the space.

The authorities have indicated that the Lion City Hotel and Hollywood Theatre sites can be redeveloped into residential and commercial developments.

The two plots, together with a substation site nearby owned by SP Powerassets, yield a gross floor area (GFA) of 507,924 sq ft. Some 243,805 sq ft can be put to residential use and 264,119 sq ft to commercial use.

The marketing agents estimate that the sites can accommodate a shopping centre similar to Katong Mall, as well as some 240 apartments with an average size of 1,000 sq ft.

They are expecting the sites to fetch more than $300 million in a tender, and the winning bidder will have to pay a development charge of around $77.8 million.

According to the agents, the land price would come up to around $753 per sq ft per plot ratio (psf ppr). If there is an extra 10 per cent of residential GFA for balcony space, the price would be around $736 psf ppr.

There is likely to be 'keen interest' in the sites as they would benefit from the upcoming commercial centre at Paya Lebar Central, the agents said.

SLP International Property Consultants' research executive director Nicholas Mak believes that the expectations are bullish. The breakeven price for the residential units could exceed $1,100 psf, he said. The tender for the sites will close on Jan 6.

Source: www.businesstimes.com.sg