URA releases second commercial site at Woodlands Regional Centre

THE Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Tuesday released a second commercial site at Woodlands Regional Centre, which is available for sale under the reserve list of the first-half 2015 Government Land Sales programme.

The proposed development on the sale site will have at least 47,009 square metres (about 60 per cent) of the maximum gross floor area or GFA (78,347 square metres) dedicated for office use.

Up to 8,000 square metres of GFA can be set aside for retail as well as food and beverage uses, and a minimum 1,000 square metres of the maximum permissible GFA for childcare centre. The lease period of the site is 99 years, the URA said in a statement on Tuesday.

The release of the second commercial site in Woodlands Regional Centre will sustain the development momentum of the precinct as a key commercial cluster outside the city.

This is in line with the government's objective of decentralising employment centres to bring job opportunities closer to homes, the URA said.

A pedestrian mall will run through the heart of the district, connecting the existing MRT and bus interchange to Causeway Point and the Woodlands Civic Centre.

The first commercial site in Woodlands Regional Centre is currently under construction. The tender for the site was launched on Dec 17, 2013, and awarded on April 17, 2014.

Woodlands Regional Centre comprises two distinctive districts and will be transformed by the upcoming commercial developments at Woodlands Central and the mixed-use business cluster in Woodlands North Coast.

When fully developed over the next 10 to 20 years, Woodlands Regional Centre will have about 700,000 square metres of commercial space and offer approximately 100,000 new jobs, according to the URA.