Cuscaden Peak, Kajima put Woodleigh Mall up for sale for about S$800 million

FOR the third time in the past 12 months, Cuscaden Peak Investments group (including Paragon Real Estate Investment Trust) has put on the market its stake in a Singapore retail asset.

The Business Times understands that the company and Kajima Development are asking for about S$800 million for The Woodleigh Mall in Bidadari estate. The two partners hold equal stakes in the property.

The mall, spanning three levels (Basement 1, and levels one and two) opened last year. It is beside Woodleigh MRT station on the North-East Line.

At S$800 million, the price works out to S$3,874 per square foot on the net lettable area of about 206,530 sq ft. Market observers estimate the net yield to be in the mid- to high-3 per cent region.

Cuscaden Peak Investments – formerly known as Singapore Press Holdings before its privatisation in May 2022 – is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cuscaden Peak, a consortium made up of three shareholders: Hotel Properties Ltd, Mapletree Investments and CLA Real Estate Holdings. Kajima Development is a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan’s Kajima Corporation.

The Woodleigh Mall is part of a mixed-use commercial and residential project that Kajima and Cuscaden Peak Investments teamed up to develop on a 50-50 partnership basis. It is built on a 99-year leasehold site that the duo acquired at a state land tender in 2017 for S$1.13 billion; the balance lease on the site is slightly more than 92 years.

The development’s 667-unit private-housing component – The Woodleigh Residences – is fully sold. The Woodleigh Mall is on its own strata title.

Also integrated in the complex are a community club and a neighbourhood police centre.

In addition to its direct connection to the existing MRT station, The Woodleigh Mall will also be linked to the upcoming Woodleigh bus interchange, Woodleigh Village Hawker Centre and Alkaff Lake.

CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield have been appointed to market The Woodleigh Mall through an expression of interest exercise that will close on Jul 30.

The mall is said to have almost full occupancy. Tenants include FairPrice Finest, Surrey Hills Grocer, Burger King, VeganBurg, and other eateries. Also in the mall are tenants in the education or enrichment business as well as medical and dental clinics.

The mall’s shopper catchment is set to grow as more Housing and Development Board build-to-order projects in the locale are completed.

Observers note that when a prospective buyer has been secured for The Woodleigh Mall, Cuscaden Peak Investments would have to offer its 50 per cent stake in the property to its sponsored real estate investment trust, Paragon Reit, under a right-of-first-refusal arrangement. However, the Reit may decline the offer, for instance, if the purchase price of the mall would dilute its distribution per unit.

Cuscaden Peak Investments owns about 61 per cent of the Reit.

Earlier divestments

In the past 12 months and prior to The Woodleigh Mall, Cuscaden Peak Investments group – including Paragon Reit – has put The Seletar Mall and The Rail Mall on the market.

Cuscaden Peak Investments had owned 70 per cent of The Seletar Mall; United Engineers held the remaining 30 per cent. The duo sold the asset for S$550 million to Allgreen Properties in a deal announced in March this year.

In June, Paragon Reit announced that it was divesting The Rail Mall, in Upper Bukit Timah Road, for S$78.5 million. The buyer has been reported to be the Yong family behind Woh Hup Holdings.

In the residential segment, Cuscaden Peak Investments last year sold three freehold Nassim Road bungalows to Singaporean members of the Fangiono family behind Singapore-listed palm oil producer First Resources for a total of S$206.7 million.

In the purpose-built student accommodation sector Cuscaden Peak Investments sold in April this year 8,192 student housing beds across 19 cities in the United Kingdom and Germany to Mapletree Investments for £1 billion (S$1.7 billion).