Penthouse office floor in prime Central Business District goes up for sale

SINGAPORE, 11 March 2024 – The entire top floor of GB Building, situated in Singapore’s Central Business District (CBD) has been launched for sale by JLL (NYSE: JLL), the appointed marketing agent for the property. Located at 143 Cecil Street, the indicative price has been set at $12.2 million. This translates to $2,218 per square feet (psf) based on an approximate strata floor area of 5,500 square feet (sq ft).

Located atop the 26-storey of the commercial building, the strata office floor enjoys beautiful city views of the surrounding locality. It has a regular, column-free floorplate with exclusive use of the lift lobby. The penthouse office floor is currently fully leased to a commercial school and will be sold with the existing tenancy.

GB Building features a retail podium, an office tower with a three-level basement carpark which has a generous parking provision of 105 carpark lots. It possesses prominent frontage at the intersection of Cecil Street and McCallum Street and has fully sheltered access to the nearby Shenton Way and Tanjong Pagar MRT stations – providing connectivity to the East-West and Thomson-East Coast lines.

The office location is a short walking distance away from prominent dining options located at Amoy Street Food Centre, the adjacent Chinatown-Telok Ayer conservation area as well as the popular Lau Pa Sat food centre.

The wider precinct is also currently undergoing a new wave of rejuvenation with Grade A offices, mixed-use developments, and luxury residences upcoming in the locality. With the likes of IOI Central Boulevard Tower, Solitaire on Cecil, TMW Maxwell, The Skywaters, and Newport Plaza coming online, this would transform the locality into a vibrant live-work-play lifestyle district.

“There has been a short supply of good quality strata office assets as they are often tightly held in the market. Given the authorities’ restrictions on the strata subdivision of new commercial developments in Central Areas and the anticipated redevelopment of older strata-titled commercial developments such as the former Maxwell House and Shenton House, the inventory of strata office stock available for acquisition is expected to become more limited. Keen interest is expected from business end-users or investors looking to purchase a penthouse office space within a prime CBD office development, and at a palatable price quantum,” says Alaric Yeo, Senior Manager at JLL Capital Markets.

The strata office market has been gaining traction in recent times with nearby strata commercial project, Solitare on Cecil, recording a strong sale performance last year. The top floor unit transacted at a price of $4,325 psf. JLL also recently brokered the sale of another District 1 penthouse office floor in December 2023 at Suntec City for $3,513 psf.

Foreigners and entities are eligible to purchase the property. Additional Buyers’ Stamp Duty (ABSD) or Sellers’ Stamp Duty (SSD) are not applicable for such commercial assets.

JLL is marketing the property through an Expression of Interest (EOI) exercise that will close on 9 April 2024 (Tuesday), at 3pm.