Development to begin on next phase of Shanghai Olympic Garden: United Engineers

UNITED Engineers Limited announced that it has finally resettled 44 farmer households on the remaining plot of land for its Shanghai Olympic Garden development, paving the way to begin the next phase of the project.

The company had been negotiating with the farmer households - occupying the remaining 33,471 square metres (sq m) of land - which has rendered the company unable to commence development on the plot, which has a tenure of 58 years remaining on the clock out of the original 70.

Phase 3.2 will now begin, whose gross development value will be around 3 billion yuan (S$624.50 million) and consist of 517 units of low-rise apartments with a total saleable gross floor area of 52,889 sq m.

Construction will commence in the second half of 2018, with completion scheduled by the end of 2021.

Between 2003 and 2013, Shanghai Olympic Garden Property Development Co (SOG) had already developed and sold other phases of Shanghai Olympic Garden - Phases 1 to 3.1 and Phase 3.3 - with a total land area of around 490,611 sq m and a total gross floor area of some 625,919 sq m.

The total land area of Shanghai Olympic Garden, located in Jiuting town, in Shanghai's Songjiang District, is around 524,082 sq m.

United Engineers' shareholding interest in SOG is held indirectly through Shenyang Huaxin International Realty (SHIR), which has a 45.05 per cent shareholding interest in SOG.

SHIR, in turn, is wholly owned by United's subsidiary, WBL Corporation, in which the company has a 67.6 per cent shareholding interest.

United Engineers expects the completion of Phase 3.2 - the sale and handover of the apartments - to contribute positively to the group's future earnings.

The counter finished on Thursday at S$2.61 apiece, up by one Singapore cent or 0.39 per cent, before the announcement was made.