16 Collyer Quay, formerly Hitachi Tower,
is a 37-
storey, ,
skyscraper in the
central business district of
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
. It is located on 16
Collyer Quay
Collyer Quay () is a road in Downtown Core, Singapore that starts after Fullerton Road and ends at the junction of Raffles Quay, Finlayson Green and Marina Boulevard. The road houses several landmarks namely, Clifford Pier, Change Alley, Hit ...
, in the zone of
Raffles Place
Raffles Place is the centre of the Financial District of Singapore and is located south of the mouth of the Singapore River. It was first planned and developed in the 1820s as Commercial Square to serve as the hub of the commercial zone of Sing ...
, near
Chevron House,
Change Alley
Exchange Alley or Change Alley is a narrow alleyway connecting shops and coffeehouses in an old neighbourhood of the City of London. It served as a convenient shortcut from the Royal Exchange on Cornhill to the Post Office on Lombard Street a ...
,
Tung Centre, and The Arcade, all of which are roughly 100 metres away. Facing
Clifford Pier
Clifford Pier was a former pier located beside Collyer Quay at Marina Bay within the Downtown Core of the Central Area, Singapore. The pier, which opened in 1933, ceased operations in 2006.
In 2008 the site was converted into a restaurant, On ...
, the building commands a panoramic view of
Marina Bay. It has an underground linkage to
Raffles Place MRT station
Raffles Place MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) interchange station on the North South Line (NSL) and East West Line (EWL) in Singapore. Located in the Downtown Core, the station is underneath Raffles Place, the centre o ...
.
The skyscraper has a spire that is , which increases the tower overall height from It is on a 999-year
leasehold
A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a l ...
.
16 Collyer Quay has a net lettable area of approximately . The building had close to 100% occupancy as of December 31, 2007, and key tenants include
Hitachi and
American Express.
History
Hitachi Tower was designed by Murphy/Jahn, Inc. Architects, and local firm Architects 61 Pte Ltd. It was completed in 1992. Other firms involved in the development include Hitachi,
CapitaLand Commercial Limited, Savu Investments Private Limited,
CapitaLand Limited
CapitaLand is a Singaporean headquartered company focusing on investment, development and management of real estate. It is one of Asia's largest real estate companies and the owner and manager of a global portfolio comprising integrated develo ...
, Obayashi Gumi Corporation, Sendai Eversendai Engineering Group, Steen Consultants Private Limited, PCR Engineers Private Limited, and Rider Hunt Levett & Bailey.
Selling of stake
On January 16, 2008,
CapitaLand
CapitaLand is a Singaporean headquartered company focusing on investment, development and management of real estate. It is one of Asia's largest real estate companies and the owner and manager of a global portfolio comprising integrated develo ...
sold its 50% stake in Hitachi Tower for
S$403.5 million, which it had earlier bought in 2000. The
National University of Singapore, which owns the remaining 50% of the office building, also sold its stake. Upon the deal's completion, CapitaLand will recognise a gain of S$110.1 million.
According to CapitaLand, the deal took into consideration the agreed value of the development at $811 million, or about $2,900 per square foot of net lettable area. It also claimed the consideration was arrived at on a willing-buyer willing-seller basis. However, the company did not state the buyer, but sources said that the building was bought by a fund linked to
Goldman Sachs. This is based on the fact that Goldman Sachs bought the next-door
Chevron House a year earlier.
In January 2011, NTUC Income acquired a 49 percent stake in Savu Investments, the holding company which owns the asset, from Goldman Sachs. In January 2013, NTUC Income bought over Goldman Sach's remaining 51% stake in
Savu Investments, the acquisition valuing the property at around $660 million, or less than $2,400 per square foot, on a net lettable space of over 278,000 square feet.
Architecture
16 Collyer Quay is linked to the 33-storey Chevron House by a four-storey glass galleria. According to the
Urban Redevelopment Authority
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is the national urban planning authority of Singapore, and a statutory board under the Ministry of National Development of the Government of Singapore.
Mission
The authority was established on 1 April ...
(URA), the two buildings are designed and planned in parallel, with each tower takes on different architectural expressions, while complementing each other to "strengthen the urban quality" of
Raffles Place
Raffles Place is the centre of the Financial District of Singapore and is located south of the mouth of the Singapore River. It was first planned and developed in the 1820s as Commercial Square to serve as the hub of the commercial zone of Sing ...
.
The building is topped off by a two-storey navigating beacon. URA claims it recalls the maritime history of the
Collyer Quay
Collyer Quay () is a road in Downtown Core, Singapore that starts after Fullerton Road and ends at the junction of Raffles Quay, Finlayson Green and Marina Boulevard. The road houses several landmarks namely, Clifford Pier, Change Alley, Hit ...
area. Its
facade is expressed in three parts, which breaks the verticality of the 37-storey tower and creates a stepping down effect that matches with the height of its shorter neighbour,
Tung Centre.
At the urban level, the two buildings respect and are designed around established patterns of pedestrian movement and urban use. The bank lobby is lifted to the upper floors to create Change Alley on the first storey, a pedestrian
thoroughfare
A thoroughfare is a primary passage or way as a transit route through regularly trafficked areas, whether by road on dry land or, by
extension, via watercraft or aircraft. On land, a thoroughfare may refer to anything from a multi-lane highwa ...
lined with retail activities that is today, a well-used and vibrant space linking Raffles Place to Collyer Quay.
See also
*
List of tallest buildings in Singapore
The city-state of Singapore has over 9,000 completed high-rises, the majority located in the Downtown Core, the city centre of Singapore. In the city, there are 96 skyscrapers. The Guoco Tower currently holds the title of tallest building in S ...
*
Hitachi
References
External links
{{Hitachi
Office buildings completed in 1992
Raffles Place
Skyscraper office buildings in Singapore
Downtown Core (Singapore)
Helmut Jahn buildings
20th-century architecture in Singapore