AN 82-YEAR-OLD colonial office building next to the famous Lau Pa Sat hawker centre has been earmarked as a hotel site and will be sold next year.
The curved four-storey Ogilvy Centre at the junction of Robinson Road and Boon Tat Street has been added to the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) list of government land sites for sale.
The building was given conservation status in 2000, so the developer who buys the site must retain its facade and part of the interior.
Its neo-classical style, with large decorative ionic columns and recessed balconies with cast-iron balustrades, was the design of F.G. Lundon of Swan and Maclaren, the oldest architectural firm in Singapore.
As a hotel, it will be able to host 70 guest rooms, said the URA on Friday.
Property consultants said the hotel could prove to be popular among business travellers, like the luxury 17-room Klapsons, The Boutique Hotel that opened on Hoe Chiang Road this year.
fiochan@sph.com.sg
Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.
