Pines Club to be redeveloped
The Straits Times | MARCH 22, 2013
The Pines Club in Stevens Road will be made over into a hotel and commercial development in an ambitious redevelopment plan.
A unit of developer Oxley Holdings has agreed to buy the 18,477 sq m estate for $318 million on a 103-year lease.
Oxley has obtained provisional permission to develop two blocks of eight-storey hotels, two blocks of two-storey commercial buildings and a four-storey clubhouse with a basement on the site, according to a company statement to the Singapore Exchange.
The club's facilities will be integrated into the new complex.
Motoring tycoon Peter Kwee told The Straits Times that club members will be offered places at the Laguna National Golf and Country Club in Changi during the interim construction period. He owns both clubs.
Members will be able to use the Stevens Road clubhouse facilities after the redevelopment, estimated to take between two and three years.
Talk about the estate's makeover surfaced as far back as last September when a notice on the club's website pointed to proposed redevelopment plans for "expansion and additional amenities... to provide better services to the members".
Oxley said the $318 million purchase price takes into account current property prices in the area and its assessment of the development's potential although no full valuation has been carried out.
The acquisition, which was announced last Friday, will be funded by internal resources, bank borrowings as well as bonds to be issued by the buyer to the seller, it added in a statement.
Oxley develops residential, industrial and commercial projects but has not tackled a hotel before, so it will seek investor backing for the project at an extraordinary general meeting, the statement said.
Its residential projects include Suites@Katong, Parc Somme and Loft@Rangoon.
The Pines Club, formerly known as The Pinetree Club, was sold to Mr Kwee in 2002 for about $100 million.
The former owner, Mr Chng Heng Tiu, had defaulted on a debt for which the property was collateral.
Martin Koh | 86666 944 | R020968Z
Sherry Tang | 9844 4400 | R020241C
Senior Sales Director
DTZ Property Network Pte Ltd (L3007960A)
Email: marshe_inc@yahoo.com.sg
