Far East Organization-led consortium clinches plum Holland Road site

A CONSORTIUM led by Far East Organization has been awarded the plum commercial and residential site in Holland Road. Its winning bid was S$1.213 billion or nearly S$1,888 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr).

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), which awarded the 99-year leasehold site on Wednesday, said that the winning bid was the highest of the five shortlisted tenderers for the dual-envelope (concept and price) tender.

Far East's fellow consortium members are Sekisui House and Sino Group.

The other four shortlisted bids came from:

A consortium comprising GuocoLand, Hong Leong Holdings, TID and Hong Realty, which bid S$1.06 billion or S$1,650 psf ppr;

A tie-up between Perennial Real Estate Holdings and Qingjian Realty, which bid S$1.055 billion or S$1,641 psf ppr;

A Capitaland and Hotel Properties tie-up, which bid S$1.02 billion or S$1,585 psf ppr; and

A Pontiac Land and Lendlease tie-up, which bid S$950 million or S$1,478 psf ppr).

These five bids were shortlisted from the 15 bids received for the tender, which closed in March. The bids were submitted by 10 consortiums. Three consortiums submitted two bids each while the Far East-led partnership submitted three bids. Tenderers that submitted multiple bids had different concept proposals for each bid.

All bidders were required to submit their concept proposals and tender prices in two separate envelopes. Only the envelopes containing concept proposals were opened on the day when the tender closed and URA released on the same evening the name of the bidders but not the bid prices.

A Concept Evaluation Committee (CEC) first evaluated the concept proposals against the evaluation criteria. Following the close of the tender, all tenderers were given the opportunity to present their proposals to the CEC and for CEC to seek the necessary clarifications.

The CEC concluded that the five concept proposals submitted by the above five tenderers had substantially satisfied the evaluation criteria, thus shortlisting them for the second stage of the tender evaluation.

At the second stage, the price envelopes of the five shortlisted tenderers were opened and the site awarded to the tenderer with the highest bid.

In its release on Wednesday evening, URA said the five shortlisted tenderers submitted strong overall development concepts and architectural designs that responded appropriately to the site context.

"All these schemes took selective and appropriate references of the site context to inform the proposed building forms, layouts, massing strategies and/or architectural expression. This resulted in sensitive extensions of the existing low-rise, fine-grained and street-oriented character of Holland Village.

"These schemes also maintained a human-scale environment along the pedestrian streets, thereby creating interesting and active street frontages, while incorporating high-quality landscaping. The public spaces were well-located and designed to be attractive spaces for events and public use."

The tenderers and lead architects for these schemes also have good track records in designing, developing and managing good quality mixed-use developments in Singapore or overseas, URA added.

URA said that overall, the concept proposal by the winning bidder is "compelling in its design concept and planning of the public realm".

The building form and massing of the scheme allowed the development to sit comfortably with the existing Holland Village. The shophouse street block, reinterpreted as a basic module building block of the proposed development, were laid out according to the existing Holland Village street block grid, resulting in a complementary site layout to the existing Holland Village.

The public spaces also form a series of unique street experiences that would extend the street experience of the existing Holland Village. The future development features a series of ground-floor public spaces divided into three zones, with each zone anchored by a main public space.

These are:

"Commons Square", which can hold events such as weekend markets and outdoor performances;

"Communal Green", which is a courtyard flanked by shops leading to a Water Court and a terraced water feature; and

"Pocket Park", which opens into Lorong Mambong in Holland Village.

A series of connected open walkways will also be implemented to connect these public spaces to the surrounding areas. Through street-paving design, the existing Lorong Liput and Lorong Mambong will be extended into the future development, thus creating a consistent and distinctive streetscape for the larger Holland Village precinct.