AN INDIRECT wholly owned subsidiary of Genting Singapore : G13 0% has received provisional permission from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to develop 21,243 square metres (sq m) gross floor area (GFA) of retail space, and 700 hotel rooms at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS).

The retail space works out to 228,658 square feet.

The above scheme is expected to be part of the pledge Genting Singapore made in 2019 to invest S$4.5 billion to expand its RWS integrated resort with new non-gaming attractions. There are currently five hotels with a total of about 1,600 rooms in RWS.

The Genting Singapore unit was one of several parties whose property development proposals were granted provisional permission (PP) by the URA in the third quarter of this year.

Separately, Bukit Sembawang Estates’ fully-owned subsidiary, Singapore United Estates, has been granted PP for a landed housing development in the Luxus Hill Heights-Seletar Green Walk area. It will comprise two bungalows, 18 semi-detached homes and 136 terraced houses.

Another wholly owned unit of Bukit Sembawang bagged URA’s provisional nod for a 155-unit condo project on a 99-year leasehold plot in Bukit Timah Link, which it acquired in a state tender last year.

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A joint venture involving Perennial Holdings, Sino Land and Far East Organization, which clinched the Golden Mile Complex in Beach Road via a collective sale last year, received PP for its plans for the site during the quarter. It is to develop 37,600 sq m of offices, 14,163 sq m of retail space and 186 apartments; the project will comprise conserved and new-build elements.

A Singtel unit was granted PP in Q3 for 101,707 sq m of office space and 3,860 sq m of retail space for the proposed redevelopment of its Comcentre headquarters in Exeter Road, near Somerset MRT station. Last year, Singtel named Lendlease as its partner for the redevelopment project.

More information has also emerged about the PP that Hotel Properties Ltd : H15 0% (HPL) bagged in August for its proposed redevelopment of the Voco Orchard Singapore hotel, Forum and HPL House in the Orchard-Cuscaden roads area. The proposed scheme includes 26,810 sq m GFA of retail space, 14,153 sq m of offices, 360 hotel rooms and 304 apartments.

In a filing with the Singapore Exchange (SGX) on Aug 28, 2023, HPL said it had received URA’s PP under the Strategic Development Incentive (SDI) Scheme for a comprehensive mixed redevelopment of the three buildings. The proposed project would comprise hotel, retail, office and residential components in two tower buildings of 64 storeys and 43 storeys, on a six-storey podium with a rooftop garden, a performance theatre and basement carpark.

A separate 29-storey tower would be built over the contiguous basement car park. The total approved GFA of 114,153 sq m for the proposed mixed development is nearly 8.14 times the total land area of 14,027 sq m.

Redevelopment plans for Marina Square

More colour was also provided in URA’s data on the preliminary plans of UOL Group : U14 0% and its listed subsidiary Singapore Land Group : U06 0% (SingLand), which will undertake a partial redevelopment of their Marina Square asset in Raffles Boulevard.

The duo are planning to build 702 residential apartments and serviced apartments, 87,529 sq m GFA of retail space and 18,891 sq m of offices, based on the PP granted in August to Marina Centre Holdings (MCH) and SingLand. MCH is owned by UOL and SingLand : U06 0%.

The Marina Square complex comprises a namesake mall and three hotels: Pan Pacific Singapore, Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay and Mandarin Oriental Singapore. The complex has a total site area of 92,197 sq m across two land parcels with 99-year leasehold tenure that began in 1980. Market watchers expect the massive site to be redeveloped in phases over a period of eight to 10 years.

Said a SingLand spokesperson: “The proposed partial redevelopment of Marina Square is in its preliminary stages. The endeavour to unlock the potential of this asset includes the diversification of the use-mix within the site, and capitalising on the surrounding new developments.”

The redevelopment is selective and at this stage, will not affect the operations of the mall and three hotels, added the spokesperson. “It will continue to be business as usual.”

MCH fully owns Marina Square mall and the Pan Pacific Singapore. It jointly owns (together with UOL) the Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay, which underwent a S$45 million revamp a few years ago. The third hotel – Mandarin Oriental, Singapore – is equally owned by MCH and the Jardine Matheson Group’s Mandarin Oriental International; the hotel, shut earlier this year for a six-month-long renovation costing about S$135 million, reopened at the end of September.

On Sep 29, 2023, SingLand said in a filing with the SGX that it was proposing to undertake a partial redevelopment of Marina Square and that it had received PP from URA in Q3 for the project. No details were provided, although by then, it was already known in the market that this would include a residential component.

This followed a proposed amendment to URA’s Master Plan, published on Aug 1, to rezone a relatively small part of the site – amounting to about 4,000 sq m, opposite One Raffles Link – from “hotel” use to “residential with commercial at first storey”.