JTC reopens tender for 208-room hospitality project in Punggol Digital District
The property, which sits on a site of 8,140 square metres, comes with a 60-year lease
[SINGAPORE] A tender to fit out and operate a 208-room hospitality project in Punggol Digital District (PDD) was launched on Friday (Aug 22), after an expression-of-interest exercise in April 2024 closed with no award.
The property, which sits on a site of 8,140 square metres, comes with a 60-year lease and is integrated with a mixed-use tower in a 50-hectare (ha) business park shaping up in Punggol.
It is marketed for sale with vacant possession, under a bare core-and-shell model, under which the building owner designs and constructs the base building, including its exterior elements.
Under the earlier exercise, tenderers had been required to hold the site for at least five years and work with the same operator for 10 years.
Responding to queries from The Business Times, JTC said: “We have taken in market feedback and modified the conditions allowing for more flexibility for the tenderer, to only mandate a ‘no change in operator’ for 10 years from the lease commencement date.”
The building has been completed; in June 2025, it received its Temporary Occupation Permit. The Punggol Coast Mall nearby opened in March 2025, and is 85 per cent occupied.
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Julien Naouri, executive vice-president of investment sales at JLL, the marketing agent, said: “Market dynamics have changed, as tenants have moved into PDD, with retail operations thriving and the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) fully operational, creating a vibrant integrated community.
“Given this positive momentum and proven mixed-use success, we confidently expect strong buyer interest in the hotel.”
JTC said that, as at August 2025, 65 per cent of space in the eight buildings in Singapore’s first smart and sustainable business district had been pre-committed.
Tenants that will be moving into the 50-ha business park include OCBC, UOB, the Government Technology Agency, Cyber Security Agency of Singapore and the Association of Information Security Professionals.
On Aug 27, Panasonic announced the opening of its first innovation hub in South-east Asia in PDD.
The 3,000 sq ft hub will provide a dedicated space for testing cutting-edge robotics and building management solutions, Panasonic said in response to queries from The Business Times.
It will also be used for demonstrating Panasonic’s latest innovations in artificial intelligence, robotics and smart-building solutions.
Around 3.3 million square feet (sq ft) of business park and mixed-use spaces opened progressively in PDD in 2024.
The mixed-use district also houses the university campus of SIT, which will have up to 12,500 tertiary students and academics.
The tender documents indicate that the hotel is targeted at short- and medium-term travellers who are working professionals or digital nomads.
Operators are “encouraged to propose innovative, smart and sustainable hospitality solutions, with a willingness to test-bed innovative technologies that align with (PDD’s) positioning as a smart district”, the tender documents said.
The winning bidder is expected to offer internship opportunities to students enrolled in SIT’s hospitality programme.
Bidders can operate the development directly or appoint a hospitality brand to do so.
BT understands that several investors are considering the project, including hotel chains, developers, family offices and private equity real estate groups.
Bids will be assessed in a concept-and-price tender, which first assesses the quality of tenderers’ development concepts, before evaluating price.
The development will overlook the Serangoon Reservoir and Coney Island, and is the first hospitality venture planned in PDD so far.
The injection of a hospitality component into a high-tech business park estate follows a model that JTC put in place some 17 years ago, for Changi Business Park.
Back in 2008, Frasers Centrepoint and Ascendas won a JTC tender for a 60-year leasehold plot to build an integrated retail, hotel and business park project. They paid S$150.8 million, or about S$119 per sq ft, for the plot.
A 313-room hotel, Capri by Fraser, Changi City, opened in 2012; a mall, Changi City Point, also came up in the business park estate.
The hotel was acquired in 2015 by Frasers Property for S$203.4 million and then sold in 2024 to a consortium led by Atelier Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum. Real estate fund TPG Angelo Gordon, Heeton Holdings and Dorsett Hospitality International were part of the consortium. The hotel had about 45 years left on its lease when it was sold.
In 2018, Ascott Residence Trust won a JTC tender to operate the first co-living development tender in research-and-development hub one-north. It bid S$62.4 million for the 60-year leasehold site in Buona Vista. The site is now occupied by the 324-unit lyf one-north Singapore, which opened in 2022.
The tender for the PDD hospitality project closes on Oct 30, 2025, and is expected to be awarded in January 2026.
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