We were part of the consortium that tendered for the Paya Lebar site. Responding to media queries on the tender for the Paya Lebar commercial site, the bidding consortium which comprised UOL Venture Investments Pte. Ltd. and S.L. Development Pte. Ltd said in a statement :
“We participated in a government tender for a commercial site at Sims Avenue/Tanjong Katong Road which closed on 18 October 2011. We have been informed today by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) that the bid was rejected. The only reason given to us was the price was too low.
We are very disappointed that the tender has not been awarded. We were looking forward to a constructive role in the Government’s long term plan to decentralize commercial activities outside of CBD which will help ease business costs, reduce undue congestion and revitalize urban nodes. Just as important, we were excited about the prospects of developing an iconic project that synergises with the Lion City development and help jumpstart the Paya Lebar commercial hub. The rejection is a setback to that decentralisation plan. Our concerted effort as serious established developers to participate in this tender despite the prevailing volatile market and unfavourable economic outlook clearly signifies our positive response to the Public-Private-Partnership model of economic development.
We had planned to hold the asset as a long term investment. The rejection came as a surprise to us, given that our bid price was a fair one in view of the site’s technical challenges and resultant impact on layout as well as the recent global economic turbulences and enhanced market risks. As price consideration was the only reason given for the rejection, it would be useful that for future land tenders, the Reserve Price be made known to the public as much costs and efforts are put into submissions of such a scale.’’
