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(SINGAPORE) With more companies reviving delayed projects at Seletar Aeropace Park (SAP), JTC Corp and the other authorities tasked with overseeing the construction of Singapore's latest aerospace hub are pushing ahead with the multi-million development of the facility.
Tang Wai Yee, JTC's director for aerospace, marine & cleantech, said that most of the infrastructure works under Phase 2 of the development - including roads, land clearance and allocations - were moving ahead smoothly.
'We will soon be inviting developers to tender and build facilities for tenants and operators who will move into the park,' she said.
JTC has started allocating plots of land where buildings with gross floor areas of 3,000-4,000 square metres can be build for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) specialists, aerospace component manufacturers and other operators at the park. Some will have direct runway access, while others will not.
JTC will allocate the land on leases of between 30 and 60 years, but will not get involved in construction. Rather, developers and end-users will negotiate directly to work out the details, including whether to build-and-sell or build-and-lease.
Developers will also be invited to build a General Aviation Centre (GAC), comprising a business jet hangar, general aviation hangar, apron and an adjoining two-storey office building. This facility will shared by multiple users.
'We will allocate about 2.6 ha in early 2010 and this could be built by a private developer who can then lease the facility to operators,' Ms Tang said, adding that this would optimise land use, while saving jet operators from having to sink funds into a huge fixed infrastructure.
But one building which JTC itself will construct is the multi-storey 7,005 sq m Business Aviation Complex.
Designed like a JTC flatted factory and built at the cost of some $14 million, this facility at East Camp will house the offices of over a dozen businesses - including air logistics players, medi-vac companies, parts and component suppliers, and business aviation companies - which are currently operating at West Camp.
All this comes as some of SAP's international tenants, including Rolls-Royce, Eurocopter and Pratt & Whitney, are preparing to ramp up plans to set up operations in the park after delaying them during the recession of the past year.
Engine maker Rolls-Royce, for example, last month announced plans to build a new Wide Chord Fan Blade (WCFB) factory at the Seletar Campus alongside its previously announced $320 million Facility of the Future to assemble the new generation jet engines. The new factory will be the first outside the UK to manufacture Rolls-Royce hollow titanium WCFBs. Total investment will exceed $700 million and create approximately 500 new jobs, bringing Rolls-Royce's employment footprint in Singapore to around 2,000 people.
Construction of the facility, including Rolls-Royce's regional training centre, will begin the first quarter of 2010.
Plans to convert the ageing former Seletar Air Base - now known as Seletar Airport - into an integrated aviation hub were announced more than two years ago.
Under the plan, over $60 million was initially to be spent to prepare some 140 ha of land (the size of 100 football fields) surrounding the 1,600 m long runway (which is being lengthened) into a 'plug-and-play' aerospace park. When completed in 2018, the SAP will house dozens of MRO specialists, aerospace component manufacturers, training centres and aviation businesses such as private jet owners/operators and medivacs. It is envisaged to employ about 10,000 people and add $3.3 billion a year to Singapore's gross domestic product (GDP).
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