Chinese Swimming Club renews lease of Amber Road site for another 30 years

SINGAPORE – The Chinese Swimming Club (CSC) has secured a 30-year lease renewal for its sports complex at Amber Road.

The move comes after four years of negotiations with the authorities, and was fully funded by the club’s reserves, CSC said on Monday.

The announcement comes a week after news that the land which Raffles Town Club occupies will be sold for residential development, after the expiry of its lease in October 2026.

“In general, where the government has future plans for the respective site, they will not renew the lease; and as such, when the lease expires, the land reverts to the state,” ERA key executive officer Eugene Lim told The Business Times (BT).

“In CSC’s case, it is indeed a blessing for the lease to be renewed,” Mr Lim added.

Huttons’ senior director of data analytics Lee Sze Teck noted that the CSC, which was founded in 1905, has contributed to the “nurturing of top national sports champions” within Singapore.

“Their vision and initiatives for the next 30 years are in alignment with the nation’s drive towards digitisation and environmental, social and corporate governance efforts,” Mr Lee told BT.

That, in turn, may have helped CSC in securing the lease extension, he added.

The lease for the state land that the club’s sports complex resides on was originally due to expire in October 2031, based on information from an Aug 10 notice on CSC’s website for an extraordinary general meeting.

The land that the sports complex resides on makes up 60 per cent of CSC’s total land area of 17,430 square metres. Facilities within the complex include four swimming pools, eight badminton courts and a 12-lane bowling alley.

With the new extension, the club will surrender the unexpired eight-year lease tenure and accept a fresh 30-year lease from the Singapore Land Authority, the same document showed.

“The fresh 30-year lease gives us the visibility to plan long term and progress on our vision of being a home away from home,” said club president Victor Chia.

The club has been “looking for ways to change and evolve with members’ work and lifestyle habits, but has been restrained from going all out without visibility on the lease renewal,” he added. THE BUSINESS TIMES