Allgreen Properties and Kuok (Singapore) – both part of Malaysian billionaire Robert Kuok’s Kuok Group – completed the purchase of 78 Shenton Way last month.

The Business Times could not ascertain the price but market watchers estimate it to be in the range of S$600 million to $630 million. A price of S$630 million would translate to about S$1,730 per square foot (psf) on the existing net lettable area of 364,030 square feet (sq ft).

Word on the street is that 78 Shenton Way’s new owners do not have immediate plans to redevelop the property, which has significant redevelopment potential under the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) Central Business District (CBD) Incentive Scheme.

Instead, Allgreen and Kuok (Singapore) are likely to hold the asset as a landbank and continue to lease out the offices.

The property comprises two towers, and sits on a site with 99-year leasehold tenure from July 1983; this leaves a balance term of about 56 years.

The property is directly connected to the upcoming Prince Edward Road MRT station on the Circle Line.

78 Shenton Way consists of a 34-storey Tower 1 completed in 1988 and an 11-storey Tower 2 completed in 2009.

The asset’s occupancy is said to be about 90 per cent. Tenants in the granite-clad Tower 1 include IPP Financial Advisers, Executive Ship Management, Bond Capital Partners and Green Needle Tech.

AIG is among the tenants in Tower 2, a glass-clad block. A co-working tenant is also in this tower.

The property was sold by a fund managed by PGIM’s real estate business.

Under a deal entered into in 2018, the fund is understood to have paid about S$700 million for 78 Shenton Way, which it acquired from a fund managed by Alpha Investment Partners, now known as Keppel Fund Management.

The PGIM-managed fund paid Alpha an initial S$680 million, followed by a further S$20 million after the planning authority’s approval was obtained within a stipulated timeframe for mixed-use redevelopment schemes proposed by Alpha that would result in enhancement of the site’s value.

78 Shenton Way’s existing gross floor area (GFA) of 494,375 sq ft is 6.9 times the 71,651 sq ft site area, which already exceeds the 5.6 plot ratio allotted to the commercial-zoned site under URA’s Master Plan 2025.

Industry observers said that under the CBD Incentive Scheme, a new project on the site could qualify for an increase in GFA of up to 25 to 30 per cent over the existing figure.

The maximum allowable increase in GFA is 30 per cent for a residential with commercial at first-storey project on the site.

Three other proposed use options under the scheme offer a maximum allowable intensification of 25 per cent.

The first is commercial and residential; the second is hotel; and the third is commercial with 40 per cent non-commercial uses, such as residential.

The third option entails a mandatory long-stay serviced apartment component, where a minimum stay duration of three months is stipulated.

PGIM is the global asset management business of New York-listed Prudential Financial.

In January, PGIM teamed up with Northstar Capital Logiprop for a S$121.1 million acquisition of 51 Tuas View Link from Far East Organization.

The asset will be redeveloped into a five-storey, full ramp-up logistics facility with about 1.1 million sq ft of GFA.

In 2024, PGIM partnered Elevate Capital Group for the S$132 million purchase of Stamford Court at 61 Stamford Road. The four-storey property is being repurposed into a co-working space and serviced apartments, with F&B and retail space on the ground level.