Foreign Property News | Posted by Si Thu Aung
CapitaLand has announced that it is selling a shopping mall for S$296 million ($217 million) to a Singapore megachurch that generated S$143 million in income last year and is led by one of the world’s richest pastors.
The Singapore-listed developer said that it had agreed to sell the seven-year-old Star Vista mall, which forms the base of the 15-storey New Creation Church’s place of worship and performing arts centre, to the church’s business entity Rock Productions.
The church, which already owns the rest of complex, said it had acquired the mall to protect the interests of the congregation, after hearing that CapitaLand had been in talks with other prospective buyers, according to an account in The Straits Times.
Located next to the Buona Vista metro station, the mall has a net leasable area of 162,500 square feet (15,097 square metres) across three floors, mainly tenanted by local retailers, with an occupancy of 95 percent this year.
Church council chairman Deacon Yong Chee Ram is reported to have said that the religious organisation’s immediate objective with the purchase was to ensure that the activities in the performing arts centre, which also serves as the congregation’s place of worship, would not be disturbed by changes that other owners may have made.
The church paid S$477 million to develop the complex after purchasing the land for S$189 million in 2007, according to The Business Times, and held its first service in the building in 2012.
Ref: Property Report
