Pardon the cliché. But the land swap deal between Singapore and Malaysia announced yesterday is being hailed as a win-win situation.
Here's the deal. The Malaysian government gives up properties such as the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station site which, as things stand now, it can't harness for redevelopment to the best and highest use.
In exchange, it gets an opportunity to develop two plum sites - one behind the Marina Bay Financial Centre and flanked by two MRT stations; the other at Ophir/Rochor roads, also boasting connectivity and adjacent to the buzzing Bugis-Bras Basah area, which is shaping up as an entertainment and education hub.
The deal for Singapore is that with the return of Keretapi Tanah Melayu's (KTM) 78-year-old Tanjong Pagar Railway Station site and other lands, it can embark on more comprehensive planning of the future extension of the CBD in Tanjong Pagar, integrating this with the vision for a new bustling waterfront district after container port terminals in the vicinity move out eventually, as Knight Frank chairman Tan Tiong Cheng points out.
'The train station has been an eyesore and Singapore will gain if it is able to rejuvenate that part of the city through this deal,' Mr Tan says.
'There is opportunity to develop iconic projects given the location and size of the plots,' says DTZ executive director Ong Choon Fah. Both sites are zoned 'white', which means a range of permissible uses could be allowed.
This site was formerly on the reserve list of the Government Land Sales Programme (up to first half 2010). While on the reserve list, the site had minimum stipulations for office and hotel space, at 40 and 15 per cent respectively of GFA. The land to be vested in M-S Pte Ltd sits in a U-shape around the iconic Art Deco-styled Parkview Square and is near the existing Bugis MRT Station as well as the future Downtown Line interchange station at Bugis.
When the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station site is returned to Singapore, it could eventually make its way into the Government Land Sale Programme, say market watchers.
The lands currently occupied by KTM's railway tracks - running near places like Holland Road, Upper Bukit Timah and Woodlands - are today considered 'sterilised' as they cannot be used to their fullest development potential. At the same time thetrains running on them create a 'disamenity' in the form of noise pollution to nearby residents.
By swapping KTM's land in Singapore for two prime sites in the Marina South and Rochor areas, 'Malaysia gets an opportunity to develop something that is more in line with themarket,' says Mrs Ong.
The devil in this arrangement will be in the details. Temasek and Khazanah will have to agree on just what they plan to build on these prime sites. Decision making could be bureaucratic and laborious.
The developments will hopefully enable the realisation of URA's planning intentions for the areas in addition to being well timed to catch market cycles.
Source: The Business Times © Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Reprinted with permission.
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anonymous said...
I am going to miss the railway tracks near Holland Road as I grew up with it. Noise pollution was never an issue. In fact, I quite enjoy the sound of the training coming in.
This is going to change the landscape of what I am used to and I think the tracks is so pretty. I have always liked the old train station in Tanjong Pagar. Sad for me.
September 22, 2010 1:58:00 PM
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