Golden Shoe Car Park to be redeveloped into S$1.8b complex

SINGAPORE — The Golden Shoe Car Park located in the heart of Raffles Place will be redeveloped into a S$1.82 billion integrated development with about 1 million sqf in gross floor area, joint venture partners CapitaLand, CapitaLand Commercial Trust (CCT) and Mitsubishi Estate said yesterday.

At 51-storeys high, the new landmark at Market Street will rise to 280m, on par with the other three tallest buildings in Raffles Place. CCT, the property owner, had announced last October that the 10-storey building, which also houses a food centre popular with office workers, would be redeveloped into a higher-value commercial development.

The new mixed-use development will feature 29 floors of premium Grade A office space on the top floors spanning 635,000 sqf of net lettable area, an eight-storey 299-unit serviced residence to be managed by The Ascott and 12,000 sqf of ancillary retail space.

It will also have five floors of car parks with about 350 lots, 10 motorcycle lots and 165 bicycle parking lots.

Under the agreement, CapitaLand and CCT will each hold a 45 per cent interest, and Mitsubishi Estate will hold a 10 per cent interest in two special purpose sub-trusts, namely Glory Office Trust and Glory SR Trust, set up to own the office and serviced residence components of the development, respectively. The development costs will be funded by the joint venture partners in proportion to their respective interests, they said.

Stallholders of the Market Street Food Centre located in the Golden Shoe Car Park will be rehoused in a food centre on the second and third levels of the development’s podium, the developers said.

From Aug 1 until project completion (estimated to be in the first half of 2021), these stallholders will operate from an interim food centre located next to the Telok Ayer MRT Station on Cross Street.

With completion slated for 2021, the new development does not add to the glut currently weighing on the office market, analysts said, adding that the market could well be on the road to recovery by then. Hit by oversupply, office prices and rentals declined in the first quarter by 4 per cent and 3.4 per cent, respectively. The vacancy rate also rose to a high of 11.6 per cent islandwide, said Mr Augustine Tan, president of the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore at a seminar last Friday.

However, things are starting to look up for the sector. Mr Nicholas Mak, head of research and consultancy at ZACD Group, said office rental and occupancy rates could stabilise next year.

“They could start to recover after 2018, depending on the demand for office space at that time. Some office owners are aiming to develop office space to meet the future demand for office space beyond 2019,” he said.

Ms Christine Li, research director of Cushman & Wakefield Singapore, is more optimistic, saying office rentals could recover up to 5 per cent this year, supported by sustained economic growth in Singapore and ahead of a slowdown in office supply from 2018 and beyond. “The Golden Shoe Car Park redevelopment could thus ride on this wave of recovery to secure higher rentals when pre-leasing activities commence in 2019 to 2020,” she said.