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A FIVE-MEMBER consortium’s bid for a mega white site in the upcoming Jurong Lake District (JLD) has been rejected for being “too low”, so the tender will not be awarded, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said on Friday (Sep 13).

The tender for the 6.5-hectare site closed on Mar 26 with a sole tenderer submitting two concept proposals. The consortium, comprising CapitaLand Development, City Developments Ltd, Frasers Property, Mitsubishi Estate and Mitsui Fudosan (Asia), had put in two bids with different concept proposals.

The project encompasses three plots of land, which will house at least 1.5 million square feet (sq ft) of office space, up to 1,700 residential units, and close to 800,000 sq ft of space for other uses such as retail and food and beverage.

“After evaluating both concept proposals, one of the proposals was thereafter shortlisted,” said the URA. “However, the tender has not been awarded as the shortlisted concept, at the tendered price of S$6,888.90 per square metre of gross floor area (GFA), was assessed to be too low.”

This works out to around S$640 per square foot per plot ratio (psf ppr).

The URA announcement came almost six months after the dual-envelope tender closed on Mar 26. At the time of the tender close, analysts had pitched bids in the S$900 to S$1,000 psf ppr range.

While market talk subsequently picked up that bids submitted were low, those in the industry had expected the tender to be awarded nonetheless, so as to kickstart development of the Jurong Lake region.

URA said in its statement on Sep 13 that the government is committed to the development of JLD as a model for sustainable development, integrating business, residential and recreational spaces, outside of the city centre.

“To advance this major undertaking, URA will continue to engage with industry stakeholders for feedback on JLD’s plans and review the approach for the Master Developer site,” said the agency.

“Meanwhile, the Master Developer site at JLD will be placed on the Reserve List, to allow interested tenderers to activate the launch of the site under the Concept and Price Revenue Tender approach, subject to a minimum price that is acceptable to the government.”

CapitaLand, CDL and Frasers Property had taken a 25 per cent stake each in the joint venture bidder, while the two Japanese companies held a 12.5 per cent stake each. 

The sale was conducted via a dual-envelope system where bidders submit concept proposals and tender prices in separate envelopes. Only concept proposals that are shortlisted go on to the second stage, which is based on price. This was done to ensure that the selected proposal is aligned with the vision for the JLD. 

Spanning a massive 6.5 hectares, the white site just awarded is the first to be launched within the upcoming JLD, which will be Singapore’s largest business district outside the city centre. 

It comprises three plots of land between Jurong East MRT interchange station and the future Jurong Lake District MRT station, to be built up to a maximum gross floor area of 365,000 square metres (sq m). 

Of this, at least 146,000 square metres (sq m) will be office space, and up to 166,000 sq m residential space, which could yield around 1,700 private homes. It will also include 73,000 sq m of space for uses such as retail and food and beverage.

Under the master developer approach, a single developer will have free rein to draw up the master plan, phase it, and carry out the entire development, including district infrastructure, provision of connectivity and public spaces. 

“The proposed integrated development will be progressively completed over the next 10-15 years and provide the critical mass to propel the development of this future business district,” URA said when it launched the tender for the site in June 2023.

In the first phase of the development, the successful tenderer will be required to build at least 753,473 square feet (sq ft) of office GFA and about 549,000 sq ft of residential GFA. The successful bidder would, however, have flexibility to phase out the remaining supply according to market demand through an option scheme drawn up by URA.