Singapore HealthPartners put in the higher offer for the 1.36ha site at $265.3 million.

A PLOT in Little India drew two bids when its tender closed yesterday.

Singapore HealthPartners put in the higher offer for the 1.36ha site at $265.3 million.

This works out to $431 per sq ft (psf) of gross floor area and is 11 per cent more than the other bid submitted by Hiap Hoe Superbowl, which offered $238 million, or $386.40 psf of gross floor area.

The Government firmly pushed out the site - located at the junction of Rangoon and Race Course Roads - earlier this year after it received little interest from developers.

It was first offered as a ‘white’ site in August last year, which meant it could be used to build homes, shops, offices or hotels.

The site, however, failed to attract takers eight months after it was first offered, prompting the Government to extend its use to hospital development.

The Government stipulated that 40 per cent of the site’s total floor area - potentially 615,965 sq ft - should still be given over to hotel rooms.

Even then, no developers came forward. This prompted the Government to offer the site for sale outright in July.

Property consultants said yesterday it is likely that the winning bidder will build a development with both hotel rooms and hospital rooms or medical suites on the site.

At least 550 hotel rooms can be built on it, estimated Mr Li Hiaw Ho of property consultancy CB Richard Ellis.

These rooms can ‘complement the hospital or medical suites’ by serving medical tourists, foreign medical consultants or family members accompanying patients, he said.

Mr Li added that this hospital-hotel hybrid model is likely to prove successful, given Singapore’s twin aims of boosting tourism and health care.

Source : Straits Times - 28 Sep 2007