New owner of TripleOne Somerset planning $150m makeover

A CONSORTIUM led by retail mall veteran Pua Seck Guan is planning to spend $150 million to spruce up TripleOne Somerset, the Orchard Road commercial property it bought for $970 million last month.

Enhancement works include increasing retail offerings and improving the quality of the 17-storey building's office towers, Mr Pua's property group Perennial Real Estate Holdings (PREH) said yesterday.

The creation of an underground pedestrian link between the building and Somerset MRT will also be explored, the company said. Mr Pua, vice-chairman and president of PREH, said the property has a good location in Orchard Road and space and tenant reconfiguration is expected to improve the building's rental yields.

TripleOne Somerset has two office towers and two floors of retail space, with a total gross floor area of 766,550 square feet. A previous BT report put its annual net property income at around $40 million.

The consortium of investors buying TripleOne Somerset was also revealed yesterday.

PREH and shareholders own 42.6 per cent, Catalist-listed property group SingHaiyi owns 20 per cent, stockbroker Ronald Ooi and the family office of his mother, Gloria Lee, owns 10 per cent, independent foreign investor Unified Elite Limited owns 9 per cent, founder of lifestyle products company OSIM, Ron Sim, owns 7.6 per cent in his personal capacity, technology and engineering counter Boustead Singapore owns 5.5 per cent through a subsidiary, and food and beverage company BreadTalk Group owns 5.3 per cent through a subsidiary.