Boustead JV seen putting Como Orchard on the market, with S$680 million asking price

A BOUSTEAD Singapore-led joint venture is expected to put Como Orchard, a freehold hotel and retail building, on the market with an asking price of about S$680 million.

Located at 28 and 30 Bideford Road, the 18-storey property is a redevelopment of the old Thong Sia Building.

Como Orchard is home to the 156-room Como Metropolitan Singapore, which opened in September 2023 under a hotel management contract with the Christina Ong-helmed Como Group. The hotel’s lobby and check-in area are on level six, with the rooms on levels seven to 18. On the rooftop are a swimming pool and other amenities.

Below the hotel are five levels of commercial/retail space with a total net lettable area of about 54,500 square feet, which is fully leased. A medical tenant is on level five.

On levels one to four are Como’s Club21 multi-label fashion business, Como Shambhala spa, all-day dining restaurant Como Cuisine, and other food and beverage offerings brought in by Como.

Savills Singapore and Cushman & Wakefield are understood to have been appointed by the joint venture to find a buyer for the property, which is near The Paragon.

Word in the market is that the S$680 million asking price reflects a net yield of about 2 per cent. The asset’s appeal is its location in the established Orchard Road shopping and entertainment district, and income stability with a hotel management agreement and blue-chip tenants in place, said observers. An investor looking to buy an entire building, without strata units, may also be drawn to a relatively new product like Como Orchard.

The development’s gross floor area of about 157,500 sq ft is 7.3 times the site area of 21,602 sq ft. The site is zoned for commercial and residential use with a 4.9 plot ratio under the Urban and Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) latest Master Plan.

Originally intended as a serviced apartment and commercial building, the project received Temporary Occupation Permit in January 2020. In 2023, URA granted temporary permission of a 10-year term for hotel use from the sixth to 18th storeys.

The property is owned by Bideford House, in which Boustead Singapore’s subsidiary Boustead Projects holds a 50 per cent stake. Lim Cher Meng Realty, controlled by Lim Kaling, a founding investor of American-Singaporean gaming company Razer, holds a 25 per cent stake, with the balance 25 per cent held by British Virgin Islands-incorporated Roark Capital, earlier reported to be an investment holding company.

The Boustead Projects-led joint venture acquired the completed development in 2022 for S$515 million, from SC Aetas, which was placed under creditors’ voluntary liquidation as part of a winding-up process.

SC Aetas, linked to David Sin’s Sin Capital, developed the project, then named Orchard Hills/Orchard Hills Residences, on the site of the former Thong Sia Building, which it had acquired through a collective sale for S$380 million in 2015.