Delfi Orchard sits near other prime properties earmarked for redevelopment in Singapore's Orchard ... [+]
City Developments Ltd. (CDL)—controlled by billionaire Kwek Leng Beng—is stepping up asset divestments with the Singapore-based property giant seeking to sell an aging retail mall in the Orchard Road shopping strip.
The company, along with other owners of the 11-story Delfi Orchard commercial and residential, are selling the property at a reserve price of S$438 million ($322 million), according to Savills Singapore, the sole marketing agent for the proposed collective sale. CDL owns 126 of the 150-strata titled units at Delfi Orchard, according to its annual report.
Delfi Orchard is the second property City Developments has earmarked for divestment this year. Earlier this week, its subsidiary Cityview Place Holdings sold 65 luxury apartment units at The Residences at W Sentosa at an average price of S$1,780 per square foot. The company still holds 138 units in the 228-unit development that its parent CDL built in 2011.
City Developments aims to raise S$1 billion this year from asset divestment as it seeks to reduce its gearing. The company’s net profit tumbled 75% to S$317 million in 2023, battered by high interest rates and a global property downturn.
Sitting on a 20,264 square feet freehold site, Delfi Orchard can be redeveloped into a commercial property of up to 20-stories high with a built up space of 131,186 square feet, Savills said in a statement. “Being a freehold commercial site, Delfi Orchard is another rare opportunity for developers looking to acquire a prime redevelopment site at the gateway of Orchard Road,” Jeremy Lake, managing director for investment sales and capital markets at Savills Singapore, said in the statement.
Orchard Road is getting a major facelift with several developers putting forward plans to redevelop aging buildings in the area, which the government aims to rejuvenate. Tycoon Ong Beng Seng’s Hotel Properties plans to redevelop the voco Orchard hotel, along with two adjoining properties into a massive mixed use hotel, office, retail and residential complex that analysts estimate will cost as much as S$2 billion to construct.
Nearby, Royal Group—controlled by Singapore billionaire Asok Kumar Hiranandani—is redeveloping the Ming Arcade, a rundown shopping mall on Cuscaden Road near Orchard Road, into a boutique hotel. Next door, Indonesian tycoon Sukanto Tanoto also plans to redevelop the Tanglin Shopping Center, which his Pacific Eagle Real Estate bought for S$868 million in 2022.
Another Orchard Road mall, Far East Shopping Center, was supposed to be sold for S$910 million to Chinese steel tycoon Du Shuanghua but he pulled out of the proposed deal after failing to get regulatory approval to build a larger commercial property on the site of one of the oldest malls in the Lion City.
Chinese tycoon Du Shuanghua pulled out from a S$910 million deal to buy Far East Shopping Centre ... [+]
