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The Big Box warehouse retail mall in Jurong East has been put up for sale via expression of interest (EOI) by the owner’s receivers and managers with no guide price given, revealed marketing agent Cushman & Wakefield on Wednesday (16 May).
The eight-storey building is owned by Big Box Pte Ltd, a 51 percent subsidiary of TT International, a consumer electronics retailer that was struggling to repay a $125 million loan facility granted by OCBC Bank.
Situated on a 606,639 sq ft site, Big Box has a gross floor area (GFA) of 1,405,032 sq ft and a plot ratio of 2.31. It has a basement level and comes with1,726 car park lots that can be converted into additional GFA.
“With a GFA of over 1.4 million sq ft, Big Box is probably the largest ramp-up warehouse asset to be offered for sale in recent years. This is a compelling opportunity for logistics players, e-commerce fulfilment & warehousing companies as well as other third-party facilities service providers to acquire a rarely available warehouse facility within the prime Jurong Gateway locale,” said Shaun Poh, Cushman’s executive director of capital markets.
Based on the agreement with Jurong Town Corporation, the Business 1 site has an allowable gross plot ratio of up to 2.5. It also has a remaining lease tenure of around 19 years given its 30-year leasehold term that started on 23 March 2007. However, it can no longer take advantage of the expired Warehouse Retail Scheme (WRS), which allows warehouses to use up to 40 percent of its GFA as ancillary retail space.
Big Box was the biggest project built under the Economic Development Board’s WRS scheme, with around 400,000 sq ft of retail space. It was also a popular one-stop shop given the affordable prices of products there sourced directly from manufacturers. It had also housed Singapore’s biggest frozen seafood section.
Located in the heart of Jurong Gateway within the new Jurong Lake District, Big Box is conveniently accessible via a sheltered pedestrian bridge connecting JEM to Jurong East MRT interchange station.
The EOI exercise will close on 14 June.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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