Two adjoining eight-storey Grade-A office buildings at 7 and 9 Tampines Grande were sold to a joint venture between Evia Real Estate and Metro Holdings on April 18 for $395 million. Evia is a privately-held property developer, while Metro is a Singapore-listed department store operator-turned-property developer.
The deal was brokered on behalf of the sellers, a fund under Alpha Investment Partners and Singapore-listed property group City Developments Ltd (CDL), by Cushman & Wakefield (C&W).
Located in Tampines Regional Centre, Singapore’s first and most established regional centre, the two properties at 7 and 9 Tampines Grande have a combined net lettable area (NLA) of 287,596 sq ft.
The two adjoining, eight-storey buildings at 7 and 9 Tampines Grande have tenants such as AIA, Hitachi Asia and BNP Paribas (Credit: Cushman & Wakefield)
The purchase price therefore translates to $1,373.45 psf based on NLA. The buildings have a balance lease of 87 years, and tenants include AIA, Hitachi Asia and BNP Paribas.
The latest sale of 7 & 9 Tampines Grande “demonstrates investor confidence in this tightly-held Grade A micro-market”, says Shaun Poh, executive director of C&W Capital Markets Group, who led the negotiations.
The pair of buildings at Tampines was part of a portfolio of three office assets owned by CDL. The other two assets were the office tower at Central Mall on Magazine Road, off Havelock Road; and Manulife Centre at the corner of Bras Basah Road and Bencoolen Street.
CDL and Alpha Investment Partners’ Alpha Asia Macro Trends Fund II had co-invested in the portfolio, valued at $1.1 billion, through a profit participation securities (PPS) deal in 2015.
In January 2019, Manulife Centre was sold to a joint venture between ARA Asset Management and British property group Chesterfield for $555.5 million or $2,305 psf based on NLA. The 11-storey commercial building has a total NLA of about 241,000 sq ft.