Incentive for Golden Mile Tower's owners to retain iconic cinema block

URA offers 25% bonus gross floor area in redevelopment if 'familiar marker' is conserved

- Ng Keng Gene

The owners of Golden Mile Tower in Beach Road have been offered bonus gross floor area in the commercial complex's redevelopment if they conserve its iconic cinema block.

The offer from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) comes amid an ongoing collective sale exercise for the strata-titled development, which comprises an 18-storey office tower on top of a six-storey retail and carpark podium that houses the cinema block.

This latest move by the URA shows how the agency has in recent years looked to conserve large-scale strata-titled buildings, such as Golden Mile Complex.

In October 2021, the development, which is adjacent to Golden Mile Tower, was conserved after a basket of incentives was offered for its refurbishment, including bonus gross floor area.

Golden Mile Tower's sales agent, Ms Anna Tan, who is a business development director at Tag Realty, told The Straits Times on Jan 6 that the complex's owners have permission to redevelop it into a 48,871.2 sq m development if at least the cinema block is kept. This results in a 25 per cent increase over the complex's current 38,953.72 sq m gross floor area.

She said the permission from URA, received on Dec 23, has resulted in an extension of the collective sale exercise till Feb 12, after it began in August and was supposed to close on Dec 31.

This third collective sale attempt has a reserve price of $556 million, lower than the $650 million reserve price in November 2022, and $600 million in April 2023.

On Aug 7, Golden Mile Tower's collective sale committee applied to the URA for the complex to be redeveloped as a 46,253 sq m mixed-use development, in the hope that an approved application would demonstrate the property's redevelopment potential to potential buyers.