Yahoo Finance Shophouse-inspired office building with duplex suites at 8 Robinson
The new façade of the 16-storey, 8 Robinson, with its lattice design (Photo: Samuel Isaac Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)
Many ageing commercial buildings along Robinson Road in the CBD have undergone significant transformations in recent years. The latest is 8 Robinson Road, which has been newly refurbished and celebrated its grand opening on Aug 30.
The 999-year leasehold commercial building will now bear the name of its address, 8 Robinson. Formerly known as ASO Building, it is managed today by Kiri Capital, a private investment firm founded by Philip Pao Sohmen, grandson of the late Hong Kong shipping magnate YK Pao. The building continues the legacy of the Sohmen family ownership that began shortly after its original completion in 1991.
Before the recent retrofit, the only refurbishment was in the early 2000s and it was a facelift to the building’s lobby.
The property, plant and equipment, which were over 30 years old, had been unchanged. “That was part of the impetus for such a comprehensive refurbishment this time,” says Matthew Cantor, managing director and head of real estate at Kiri Capital.
The lobby with its timber panelled walls and honed marble flooring (Photo: Samuel Isaac Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)
Sustainability features
The latest refurbishment at 8 Robinson saw new mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems installed, the old lift system replaced with a new one, and the front and rear facades changed. In addition to the main front entrance, a new rear entrance and drop-off area was created. “When Covid hit, we knew we would have to fully reinvent our building if we expected it to survive all of the uncertainty facing office assets more broadly,” says Cantor.
The building attained a Green Mark Gold Plus certification under the more stringent Building and Construction Authority (BCA) Green Mark sustainability criteria in 2017. “We wanted to be ahead of the transition and be among the first to deliver on the new Green Mark Gold Plus rating,” says Cantor. BCA raised the bar further with even more stringent criteria in April 2021.
“Top corporate occupiers are showing increasing preference for buildings that offer sustainability credentials,” says Wong Xian Yang, Cushman & Wakefield’s head of research for Singapore and Southeast Asia. “A Green Mark Gold Plus rating would meet most occupiers’ site selection sustainability criteria.”
According to a Cushman & Wakefield Singapore research report on June 27, up to 73% of Green Mark-certified buildings (under the 2015 criteria) might not qualify for a Green Mark rating under the more stringent 2021 criteria.
“Tenant demand is bifurcated,” says Kiri Capital’s Cantor. “A modern building with sustainability features, a Green Mark rating and outdoor spaces will see strong demand.” On the other hand, he adds that Grade-B and Grade-C office buildings that are not refurbished or upgraded with the latest sustainability features and Green Mark rating will become “commoditised”, competing solely on rental rates.
Before the recent refurbishment, rental rates at 8 Robinson Road hovered between $6.50 psf per month and $7 psf per month, based on the last round of lease renewals in 2019. Many were long-term tenants, with some occupying the building for over 10 years.
A duplex office unit where sizes range from 4,350 to 4,510 sq ft (Photo: Samuel Isaac Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)
Catering for post-Covid concerns
When repositioning 8 Robinson, Kiri Capital focused on office tenants with space requirements of 3,000 sq ft to 5,000 sq ft. “Many of these tenants consider shophouses an alternative to conventional office space,” says Cantor. “However, we tried to address some of the constraints of a shophouse, such as energy and space efficiency, to capture a new market segment for our building.”
Designed as “vertically stacked shophouses” by Singapore-based ID Architects (IDA), the 16-storey building has just eight office units, predominantly duplex office suites, ranging from 2,300 sq ft to 4,510 sq ft. Cantor says one of the units will also enjoy prominent Raffles Place signage.
The new building pays homage to the site’s history, formerly a single shophouse plot. Bookseller and printing house GH Kiat & Co operated from a three-storey shophouse at 8 Robinson Road for 27 years from 1936 to 1963. GH Kiat & Co. was founded in 1918 by its managing director, Goh Hood Kiat, the uncle of Goh Keng Swee, Singapore’s former deputy prime minister and finance minister.
At 8 Robinson, half of the office units come with a balcony. However, Cantor notes that all the units have permeable rear glazing, allowing complete indoor-outdoor flexibility on every level. New features in the property include lifts with air purifiers. A variable refrigerant flow (VRF) air-conditioning system means every unit has its own air supply. Every office unit will have dedicated toilets and end-of-trip facilities, including a shower on every floor. Toilets are naturally ventilated and come with automated doors, air purifiers and plants with antibacterial properties.
“People will appreciate not sharing airflow nor toilets with other tenants,” says Cantor. “Our entire design process was conceived to accommodate the post-Covid needs of office occupiers.”
Duplex units with a balcony that tenants can use (Photo: Samuel Isaac Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)
Smaller occupiers
8 Robinson is targeting a unique niche, notes Cantor. Potential tenants include those who have outgrown their co-working space, such as new start-ups. The spaces will also appeal to companies considering downsizing from 7,000 sq ft to 10,000 sq ft.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Wong agrees: “It could be a sweet spot for some companies looking to right size or for maturing firms with more established operations in Singapore.”
He says that demand for 8 Robinson is expected to come from financial and professional services firms “who value exclusivity, privacy and quality specifications”. Potential occupiers include family offices, investment firms, law firms and growing tech companies.
Based on an analysis of rental data by Cushman & Wakefield, from January to July 2023, 80% of rental contracts in Districts 1 and 2 were for office space of 5,000 sq ft and below.
In the CBD, asking rents of new office spaces are typically about $12 psf per month today, based on Cushman & Wakefield’s estimates. Wong points out that 8 Robinson cannot be compared to average Grade-A offices in the CBD which has an average rent of about $10.57 psf per month as they include older office developments and significantly larger sizes.
Cushman & Wakefield is the appointed leasing agency for 8 Robinson. According to the firm, leasing enquiries have been “encouraging” with ongoing active negotiations. The building has a total net lettable area of 32,000 sq ft in terms of office space across the whole building, and about 1,100 sq ft retail space on the first and mezzanine levels. The retail space is ideal for a café-cum-wine bar, bar, says Kiri Capital’s Cantor.
URA plans to turn Robinson Road into a “transit-priority corridor”, with more space dedicated to buses, cycling paths and pedestrian walkways in its Master Plan 2019 (Photo: Samuel Isaac Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)`
Robinson Road – friendly to pedestrians, bicycles and buses
Cantor is excited about URA’s plans to turn Robinson Road into a “transit-priority corridor”, with more space dedicated to buses, cycling paths and pedestrian walkways in its Master Plan 2019. URA has also outlined that wider sidewalks will mean having more greenery and al fresco dining space.
Robinson Road is currently a key bus corridor connecting the two Downtown hubs of Raffles Place and Tanjong Pagar, according to URA. When Phases 4 and 5 of the Thomson-East Coast Line are completed in 2024 and 2025, it will change how people from the East commute to the CBD for work. With more residential projects coming up in the Tanjong Pagar and Marina Bay area, along with the opening of the new MRT stations, the changes in the CBD will be “transformational”, says Cantor.
He adds that the cafe at 8 Robinson will work well in the current Robinson Road but will work even better with the future Robinson Road when outdoor seating is allowed.
The rear entrance of the building looks out to the park beside the heritage building, The Quadrant. Singapore Land Authority (SLA), the landlord of The Quadrant, encouraged the restaurant operator, Rosemead, a farm-to-table American grill under the Jigger & Pony Group, to activate the park, which, in the evenings, becomes an alfresco area.
Cantor says that from the rear entrance of 8 Robinson, it is just 10 steps to the Raffles Place MRT Interchange station. From the front entrance on Robinson Road, it is 15 steps to the MRT station via a sheltered walkway.
The mezzanine level of the 2,900 sq ft duplex at the topmost floor of the 16-storey building (Photo: Samuel Isaac Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)
Global footprint
Besides 8 Robinson, Kiri Capital manages other residential and commercial investments in Singapore, including conservation shophouses. Its most recent acquisition was a co-investment in another office building in the Greater CBD area in 2018, which later underwent a comprehensive refurbishment. “We like value-add repositioning stories for our assets,” says Cantor.
Kiri Capital’s real estate activities span the globe, from Canada to Japan, Singapore, the UK and the US. Cantor oversees the entire portfolio. Besides 8 Robinson, Kiri Capital is completing the refurbishment of an office building in London in September and a multifamily residential building in Vancouver in October. Both properties also incorporate unique heritage elements. “Often, it makes more sense to invest in our own properties instead of buying new assets,” says Cantor. “We do see greater upside in modernising our own portfolio and a high opportunity cost if we do not.”
Kiri Capital is conservative about prospects for the rest of the year. The concern is valuation. “No one is quite sure where real estate values will settle in almost every asset class,” says Cantor. “It’s partly due to interest rates, inflation and general economic conditions.”
According to Cantor, the firm is a long-term investor. “We find ourselves now in a market where it makes sense to gather a bit more information rather than rushing to invest,” he says. “We tend to deploy [capital] consistently throughout cycles rather than aiming to time the bottom at any given moment.”
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