ALLGREEN Properties, part of the Kuok Group, is in exclusive due diligence to buy The Seletar Mall, The Business Times understands.

Word in the market is that the price could be about S$520 million. Located next to Fernvale LRT station in the Sengkang West area, The Seletar Mall is on a site with 99-year leasehold tenure from April 2012; this leaves a balance of about 87 years.

FairPrice Finest, Shaw Theatres, Popular Bookstore and Harvey Norman are among the tenants at the mall, which has a total net lettable area of about 189,500 sq ft. The suburban shopping centre in Sengkang is supported by a strong customer catchment from the surrounding Housing & Development Board (HDB) flats as well as private condos and landed homes a short distance away.

The Business Times reported in September last year that the mall’s owners – Cuscaden Peak Investments and United Engineers – had appointed Cushman & Wakefield and JLL to find a buyer for the fully-occupied property.

The joint marketing agents conducted an expression of interest exercise. Some big-name mall owners were among those who participated in the exercise. A few parties were shortlisted to sharpen their pencils and improve their offers, with Allgreen recently selected as the final party to do exclusive due diligence for a potential purchase.

The Seletar Mall, which opened in November 2014, has six levels of retail space, including two basement floors. Another three lower basement floors are for car parking spaces.

Allgreen’s Singapore retail property portfolio includes Great World in Kim Seng Road, Tanglin Mall and Tanglin Place – all close to the prime Orchard Road shopping belt.

Through a joint venture with Kerry Properties, Allgreen is developing the soon-to-open Pasir Ris Mall, as part of an integrated project in Pasir Ris Central that also includes a residential component. Kerry Properties, listed on the Hong Kong bourse, is also a member of the Kuok Group, founded by Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok.

Cuscaden Peak Investments – formerly known as Singapore Press Holdings before its privatisation in May 2022 – is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cuscaden Peak, a consortium made up of three shareholders: Hotel Properties, Mapletree Investments and CLA Real Estate Holdings.

Last year, Cuscaden Peak Investments sold three Nassim Road bungalows to Singaporean members of the Fangiono family behind Singapore-listed palm oil producer First Resources for a total of S$206.7 million. The price translated to S$4,500 per square foot on land area, a record land rate in the Good Class Bungalow market.

Evia enters into deal with Mercatus

Separately, Evia Real Estate is said to have concluded due diligence and entered into a deal to buy two of the three bundles of commercial properties in HDB estates put on the market last year by NTUC Enterprise unit Mercatus. BT previously reported the price as slightly upward of S$175 million.

Singapore-based property group JBE earlier inked a deal to buy Mercatus’ third bundle. Both transactions are subject to HDB’s approval.