The Alexcier’s secret and illegal ninth floor will have to be demolished by early April as ordered by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA).
The illicitly constructed floor made news last weekend when the BCA received an anonymous tip that the 8-level Alexcier building in Alexandra had a secret 9th floor spanning about 5,000 sq ft that was built without authorisation.
The demolition order was served by hand to the owners of the 9th floor unit, ZACD Investments under the ZACD Group. The ZACD Group founder and CEO is Stanley Yeo Choon Guan. They were also ordered to vacate the area.
BCA said that their preliminary site inspection and checks showed that the unauthorised addition doesn’t pose immediate structural danger to the rest of the building – a concern that was raised by architectural experts when this story first came to light.
BCA added that their investigations are ongoing and that they will take ‘appropriate enforcement action’ against the parties involved.
The fact that the floor was kept a secret all this while means that the owner, Mr Yeo, has dodged the development charge he as supposed to pay to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). According to calculations at a rate of $3,850 per sq m for the sector that the building is in, Mr Yeo avoided paying over S41 million for the additional floor had he done it the right way.
Mr Yeo had admitted to The Sunday Times that the company had built the extra space above the 8th floor unit, which his company also owns. However, he did claim that the 9th floor was merely a racking system – much like a warehouse with shelves for storage – even though video of the inspection show that the space has been set up with various living spaces, workstations, beds, a kitchen, and a meeting room. Mr Yeo also said that ZACD will be moving out of the unit as they are cutting down operations.
However, according to reports, there are still people operating in the unit as of Monday, 4th March 2019.
The BCA, URA and Singapore Civil Defence Force are currently investigating the matter and have siad that they will take against against those responsible. Under the Building Control Act, those found guilty of carrying out unauthorised building works can be fined up to $200,000 and/or sentenced to jail for up to two years.
