SMRT should consider farming out retail space ops

A COUPLE of months ago, CapitaLand bagged a contract to manage the retail component of the new SingPost Centre next to the Paya Lebar MRT Interchange station. Slated to open in the second half of this year, this will comprise about 175,000 sq ft net lettable area of retail space spanning five levels.

SingPost noted, among other things, that the arrangement allows it to focus its attention on its core operations of postal services and eCommerce logistics.

This seems to me a sensible arrangement for organisations like SingPost that own retail space, but for whom this is not their core business.

One such organisation is SMRT Corporation, which operates three MRT lines - North-South, East-West and Circle - as well as the Bukit Panjang LRT Line for the Land Transport Authority (LTA) under a licence arrangement. While LTA holds the main lease for the train stations (including the retail space …