Tycoon Ong Beng Seng’s HPL, Potential Partners In Talks To Redevelop Singapore Assets

Hotel Properties Ltd. (HPL)—which counts tycoon Ong Beng Seng and his wife Christina among its biggest shareholders—is in talks with potential partners to redevelop three of its adjoining prime properties on Orchard Road, Singapore’s main shopping strip.

“Several interested parties have approached the company,” HPL said in a statement to the Singapore Exchange late Tuesday. “A joint venture in relation to the properties is a possibility.”

The company won regulatory approval in 2023 to redevelop the Forum shopping center, Voco hotel and HPL House in the Orchard Road shopping precinct into a mixed-use project comprising a hotel as well as retail, office and residential components on the three sites with a combined land area of 14,027 square meters.

Under the plan unveiled two years ago, HPL will build a 64 story skyscraper, along with a 43-story tower, a separate 29-story block, a rooftop garden and a performance theater. The entire project—which analysts estimate would entail investments of as much as S$2 billion ($1.6 billion) will have a built up space of 114,153 square meters when completed..

“The company continues to explore the viability of redeveloping the properties with some of these interest parties,” Hotel Properties said. “There’s no certainty that any discussions with these interested parties will result in any transaction.”

The project would be the largest property redevelopment on Orchard Road, which has recently seen a number of older buildings earmarked for redevelopment as the government aims to rejuvenate the shopping district as a pedestrian friendly and green urban destination. Tycoon Asok Kumar Hiranandani’s Royal Group is building a boutique hotel on the site of the former site of the Ming Arcade shopping center on Cuscaden Road into a boutique hotel, while Indonesian billionaire Sukanto Tanoto’s Pacific Eagle Real Estate is redeveloping the nearby Tanglin Shopping Centre.

Ong, whose Hotel Properties has a portfolio of assets across 15 countries including the Four Seasons Hotel in Singapore and resorts in the Maldives, has a current net worth of $1.7 billion that he shares with his wife. The tycoon, who also owns the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix franchise, stepped down as the Hotel Properties’ managing director in April after becoming embroiled in a corruption case that led to the imprisonment of a senior politician. He is scheduled to plead guilty next week to charges of abetting former Transport Minister S. Iswaran over flights and a hotel stay in Doha.