Bishan to get over 2 million sq ft of office space, new integrated development

[SINGAPORE] Plans to develop Bishan as a business node could add over 2 million square feet (sq ft) of new office space to the area, Minister for National Development Chee Hong Tat disclosed on Thursday (Jun 26). The fresh office space will be part of a new integrated development mapped out for Bishan, one of Singapore’s more densely populated areas. The housing estate will also get new community amenities such as a polyclinic, a hawker centre and a revamped bus interchange with air-conditioned waiting areas. Works for these new developments will start within this term of government, and take several years, said Chee in a video shared on social media channels on Thursday morning.

It follows the unveiling of the Draft Master Plan 2025 on Wednesday, which revealed the government’s plans to grow decentralised office spots with the refresh of regional business nodes across the island. At around 200,000 square metres or 2.2 million sq ft, the office space will take up a rough equivalent of 28 football fields, and be of similar size to Suntec City’s office space. It is also expected to be on the scale of Paya Lebar Central, a relatively new commercial precinct that now houses the Paya Lebar Quarter development, completed in 2018 to 2019. Market watchers had pointed to several plots of vacant land near the Bishan interchange and around the Junction 8 mall, suggesting that new developments could sit atop the interchange.

Property developer Lendlease and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority jointly acquired the Paya Lebar plot at a state tender in 2015 for S$1.67 billion, trumping the offers of five other bidders. The 3.9-hectare site was then developed into seven buildings: a retail mall, three office towers and three private residential blocks. Paya Lebar Quarter and Paya Lebar Square contain well over a million square feet of office space. Some government agencies are now looking at relocating their offices to Bishan, to kick-start the development of the business node, the Urban Redevelopment Authority said on Wednesday.