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HERITAGE boutique hotel Duxton Reserve Singapore has been put up for sale with a reserve price exceeding S$90 million, which equates to about S$2,647 per square foot (psf) or S$1.8 million per key.

Owned by Singapore-based hospitality company The Garcha Group, the property is located 80 and 83 Duxton Road on a site area of 9,775 square feet (sq ft) within the Tanjong Pagar district.

The property comprises eight three-storey conservation shophouses with an approximate built-up area of 34,000 sq ft. It features 49 guestrooms and suites ranging from 20 square metres (sq m) to 51 sq m.

Duxton Reserve Singapore is part of the Autograph Collection range of upper-upscale to luxury hotels within Marriott International’s portfolio.

JLL, which was appointed exclusive adviser for the sale, is currently marketing the hotel through an expression of interest process. 

Tan Ling Wei, senior vice-president for investment sales at JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group, Singapore, said the property also “presents an opportunity to maximise revenue through the activation of spare common areas” for the use of events or pop-up stores.

Such areas would thus provide an avenue for additional rental income, he added.

In its press statement on Wednesday (Oct 23), JLL said it would provide detailed information on the property – including financial and legal information – for review upon execution of a confidentiality agreement.

In 2018, Duxton Reserve and its sister hotel on Cook Street, The Maxwell Reserve, debuted under the InterContinental Hotels Group’s Six Senses brand as Six Senses Duxton and Six Senses Maxwell.

Garcha Group’s founder and chairman Satinder Garcha, together with his wife and the group’s managing director Harpreet Bedi, were directors of the entities that owned both hotels at the time – namely SG Hotels (which owned Maxwell) and Murray (which owned Duxton).

The couple became embroiled in a civil suit filed in 2019 against Murray Aitken, who was general manager of both the Duxton and Maxwell properties from February 2018 to 2020.

According to a 2021 article published by The Edge Singapore, the dispute arose over Garcha and Bedi’s alleged “material divergences” between the budgeted and actual performance of the hotels.   

Aitken was reported to have submitted his resignation letter to the hotel operator, Six Senses, dated Oct 11, 2019.

Both the hotel owners and the hotel operator later agreed to “mutually terminate” their contract as at May 2020, and Six Senses exited Singapore a month later.