news review
Record urban renewal bids
A record total of 107 tenders were submitted for the 14 sites offered by the Singapore Housing Board in the third sale of its ambitious urban re- newal programme.
Mr. Alan Choe, head of the board's Urban Re- newal Department, said that the investment pro- posals were worth S$654 million. They came from 85 developers who had already paid S$7.5 million in tender deposits.
The premium offered in one case amounted to 11 times that of the guide value given.
Mr. Choe said that this third sale was the first in which all 14 sites offered had been tendered for. In the first sale, 14 tenders were received from ten bidders for eight of the 14 sites offered in June 1967. In the second sale 51 tenders were received from 38 tenderers for 12 of the 14 sites offered in November 1968.
Central site for auction
The record sum of HK$105 million bid for a
hotel site in Nathan Road last November may well be exceeded when a lot of 53,000 sq.ft. west of the Star Ferry car park and fronting Connaught Road Central is auctioned on June 1. Government has set the upset price at HK$53 million. Upset price of the Nathan Road site was HK$25 million.
A Government spokesman said last month that attractive payment terms permit the purchase price to be paid by instalments free of interest over a period of 10 years. If a bona fide hotel was erected on the site, the developer would be eligible to ob- tain the benefit of concessions under the Buildings Ordinance which apply in the case of hotel build- ings.
Tallest building in Asia
Keio Plaza Hotel, destined to be the tallest building in Asia, is now taking shape in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The framework for 33 or its 47 storeys is in place and the whole project is scheduled for completion by March next year.
Jumbo H-shapes, supplied by Nippon Steel Corp., are being used in the framework, the total weight of which will be 11,000 tons.
Designed to withstand earthquakes, the hotel will be the first high-rise building in Japan with precast curtain walls, rising to 170 metres. Hotel guest rooms, located on the 11th to the 43rd floor,
Framework for Keio Plaza Hotel
will number 1,046. Facilities will include con- ference rooms, party rooms, restaurants, swimming pool and roof garden.
Kajima Construction Co., who built the Kasu- migaseki Building and the World Trade Centre, are the contractors.
Three-year housing bill - HK$270 m.
The cost of providing resettlement and low cost housing over the next three years would be about HK$270 million, Hong Kong's director of public works, Mr. J.J. Robson, said recently. This sum would be spent on homes for 198,000 in resettle- ment estates and 211,750 in low cost housing estates.
'Resettlement and low-cost housing have for many years represented the largest slice of public works expenditure,' he said, 'and in spite of the proposed expansion of the road construction pro- gramme, High Island Dam and slum clearance, this will continue to be the case for many years.'
'Within existing policy, the problem has not so far been one of money but of finding sufficient suitable sites, staff to do the work and the capacity or ability of the building industry. These problems do not become easier with time and yet, in the last three years, accommodation has been built for 255,100 in resettlement blocks and 106,000 in low cost housing.
On the sale of urban land over the next six months, Mr. Robson said about 800,000 sq.ft. would be available, of which about 600,000 sq.ft. was residential.
But he wondered if the building industry had the capacity to handle immediately the extra
Far East BUILDER, May 1970
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