SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - Property developer Fragrance Group has acquired Katong Plaza in Marine Parade for $180 million. The sale price translates to a land rate of $1,809 psf per plot ratio (psf ppr), including the land betterment charge.

Katong Plaza is a freehold commercial and residential mixed-use development located at 1 Brooke Road. It has 132 strata retail units and 14 residential apartments. Owners of the retail units will be receiving proceeds ranging from $502,000 to over $6 million, while residential owners will be getting between $2 million and $5.1 million, notes Terence Lian, Huttons Asia’s head of investment sales who brokered the deal.

The existing development spans a total land area of 34,044 sq ft with a gross plot ratio of 3.0. This works out to a maximum gross floor area of 102,132 sq ft.

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It is currently zoned for commercial and residential use but has received URA approval for hotel use. Lian estimates that the new hotel could yield between 300 and 340 rooms.

Fragrance Group could potentially redevelop Katong Square into a new hotel under one of the Accor brands. After all, Katong Plaza is located in prime District 15 in the east and just 120m from the Marine Parade MRT Station on the Thomson-East Coast Line and the Parkway Parade shopping mall.

Katong Plaza is next to Roxy Square and the Grand Mercure Roxy Singapore. Other hotels nearby include Holiday Inn Express Singapore Katong, an IHG Hotel and Village Hotel Katong.

“We believe this sale will boost confidence in the collective sale market as developers continue to pursue attractive land parcels,” says Lian.

Fragrance Group and its hospitality arm, Global Premium Hotels, are controlled by billionaire property developer and hotelier James Koh, the chairman of both firms. Global Premium Hotels has a portfolio of brands, including the homegrown Fragrance and Parc Sovereign. In 2019, Fragrance and international hotel group Accor tied up to open 13 new ibis Budget hotels, which were previously Fragrance-branded hotels, along with bringing in the ibis Styles and Mercure brands.

Last month, Fragrance Group and Global Premium Hotels signed another agreement with Accor to open two new-build properties with three new hotels by 2027. They are the 808-key Mövenpick Singapore on Hoe Chiang Road, which will be the largest Mövenpick hotel in the Asia Pacific region. It will also house Mövenpick Living Singapore, a 37-key accommodation targeted at travellers seeking extended stays.

Read also: Accor partners Fragrance Group and Global Premium Hotels to open three new Singapore properties

The other property, located at Waterloo Street, will be a new 502-room hotel under the Handwritten Collection brand of Accor. It is a redevelopment of the former Min Yuan Apartments which Fragrance Group acquired en bloc for $141 million in September 2019; and the former Waterloo Apartments, which it acquired in November 2018 for $131.1 million. The two 999-year leasehold sites were amalgamated, and URA approval was obtained for redevelopment into a 500-room hotel.

Check out the latest listings for Katong Plaza properties