April 21, 2008
A dream come true despite obstacles
TRAINING firm ERC Holdings had to move out of its Robinson Road premises when rents there tripled.
Rather than move to an affordable but inconvenient location, managing director Andy Ong decided to tender for the former River Valley Primary School and convert it into offices.
'It's a great location: five minutes from Orchard Road, five minutes from our old office,' he said.
ERC kept 5,000 sq ft at Robinson Road, a quarter of its original space, and moved the rest over to River Valley. With 250,000 sq ft of land and 70,000 sq ft of office space, there was so much room, ERC leased out half to luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet.
The rents, at about $2 per sq ft (psf), seemed like a dream. At Robinson Road, they had come to over $3 psf and were set to rise to more than $10 psf. But the dream soured a bit for Mr Ong when he realised how much work had to be done to convert the premises. 'My to-do list had 210 items.'
As for the expenses, he said: 'The bills are still coming in. Hopefully, we will not exceed $5 million.'
Still, he said the company had 'no choice' but to take on this project. 'We would have spent $5 million in rental over three years anyway.'
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EastLiving - Singapore Property and Real Estate DB
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