The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) launched the commercial site at Stamford Road/ North Bridge Road for sale by public tender yesterday.

The land parcel was made available for sale via the Reserve List system on 18 Dec 2008. URA received an application from a developer to put up the land parcel for tender and the developer has committed to bid at least $100 million for the land parcel.

The 1.43 ha site is located at the junction of Stamford Road and North Bridge Road with extensive prominent frontage onto these major roads. It is slated to be developed for commercial use with a hotel component. The site will be sold together with a subterranean parcel below North Bridge Road that provides seamless access to the City Hall MRT Interchange Station and the underground pedestrian network connecting to the nearby Marina Centre area and Esplanade MRT Station.

The maximum permissible gross floor area (GFA) for the development is 50,389 sqm of which a minimum 25% is to be for hotel use. The land parcel is envisaged to also feature other complementary uses that befit its prime location, including retail, food and beverage, art and entertainment facilities and such.

The land parcel also contains a cluster of three historically and architecturally significant buildings – Capitol Theatre, Capitol Building and Stamford House – that are to be retained and restored for adaptive reuse. The Capitol Theatre, which was a purpose-built performance facility, is required to be restored into an arts or entertainment-related performance venue. The integration of a performance venue will enhance the attractiveness of the development and strengthen the arts and cultural positioning for the Civic District and the nearby Bras Basah.Bugis area.

In line with the vision to create a distinctive development that commensurate with the strategic location of the site, a Concept and Price revenue tender system will be adopted to evaluate the tenders for the site.

Under this system, tenderers are required to submit their concept proposals and tender prices in two separate envelopes. The concept proposals will be first evaluated against a set of criteria specified in the tender. Only tenders that meet the criteria will be considered for award.

At the second stage, the price envelopes of the proposals with acceptable concepts will be opened for consideration. The site will then be awarded to the tender with the highest bid price among those with acceptable concept proposals.

A tender period of about 16 weeks will be provided for this site. The tender will close on 18 Aug 2010.