The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) announced that it will be launching a public tender for a hotel site located at New Bridge Road in July 2009.
The 0.45 hectare hotel site was made available for sale by April 2007’s reserve list system of the Singaporean government. The government’s reserve list system states that if it receives an application from a developer who will promises to bid for the site at or more than the minimum price that is acceptable to the government, the government will build a site for public tender only.
URA said it already received an application from a developer, committing to bid for the land parcel at a price of at least $43.9 million, which has set the public tender in action. Analysts note that interest appears to be back for small development sites with good attributes.
In June 2009, a public tender for Short Street’s small hotel site has received 15 bids, but one has been judged invalid because the amount offered is smaller than acceptable, thus, concluded with only 14 valid bids. This is considered as one of the greatest tenders received for a Government Land Sales.
Analysts also believe that the New Bridge Road site, which has a maximum permissible gross floor area of 168,853 square feet and can house a 200-room boutique hotel, is attractive to bidders as it is very near the Outram Park MRT Station.