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The lift stops on the eighth floor. But there is a ninth. To get there, people enter an office pantry on the eighth storey, key in a password on a keypad on the wall, and a door - disguised as a display shelf - unlocks. Behind it are two flights of stairs. Go up, and one finds an entire floor spanning over 5,000 sq ft. In what is the first known case of its kind in Singapore, a light industrial building in Alexandra Road has been discovered to have illegally included a hidden floor. The size of eight three-room HDB flats, it boasts various living spaces with workstations, beds, a kitchen and a meeting room. The hidden floor came to light last week when the authorities, acting on a tip-off, conducted inspections of The Alexcier. The Building and Construction Authority, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) told The Sunday Times that the floor is "unauthorised". They will be taking enforcement action against those responsible. A strata-certified plan of The Alexcier obtained by The Sunday Times showed that there are supposed to be only eight storeys and one basement in the multi-use light industrial B1 building. It was built by local developer Chiu Teng Group in 2005. A company director of Chiu Teng Group, reached via phone, declined comment. He did not give his name. The boss of the company that owns the eighth-floor unit admitted to The Sunday Times that it had built the extra space above. It has been owned by real estate investment firm ZACD Investments since 2008, and is now leased to property and asset management company ZACD Posh. Both are under the ZACD Group, which hires some 300 employees. Mr Stanley Yeo, ZACD Group co-founder and group chief executive officer, said: "It's not an additional floor. It's a racking system. We built it four to five years ago for storage purposes. It's only about 3,000 to 4,000 sq ft." A racking system is a shelving storage system, similar to what furniture retailer Ikea uses to store large items at its pickup hall. The hidden ninth floor at The Alexcier boasts various living spaces with workstations, beds, a kitchen and a meeting room. But The Sunday Times understands that the ninth floor is as big as the eighth-floor unit, which is about 5,200 sq ft, excluding a rooftop terrace. A video of SCDF officers inspecting the clandestine unit last Tuesday shows that it - unlike a racking system - is constructed like an enclosed floor, with interior fittings. Some business owners working in the same building said they had no inkling that there was a ninth floor. But they had suspected that people were living on the eighth floor after seeing foreigners taking the cargo lift to it late at night. One business owner who asked not to be named said: "A few years ago, the security guards were already talking about people living on the eighth floor. They were told by the owner to let these people into the building. Some of them are foreigners. About 15 to 18 of them come here after 10.45pm every night." But Mr Yeo insisted that no one was living on the ninth floor, which he said was solely used as storage space. The furniture there, including beds, was previously used in his company showroom, he said. As for the workstations, he said he had moved up some of the computers from the eighth floor after his company's IT system was hacked. "Nobody lives there, but we have people who work overtime and overnight. We have a software engineering business and people work late. They are not there most of the time. Only once in a while," said Mr Yeo. He added that he has been told by SCDF that his additional structure is not compliant and he will be sealing off the stairway later this month. ZACD Posh is moving out of the unit to an office at Spring Singapore because it is cutting down on some operations, said Mr Yeo. A potential foreign investor who viewed it recently said she was not told that there was an extra floor in the unit, even though she had questioned the eighth-floor unit's low ceiling given that the roof looked high from the exterior. When The Sunday Times visited the premises last Friday, things were already packed in boxes. The architect of The Alexcier said that he designed it with eight floors. Mr Chng Beng Guan, managing director of 3HPArchitects, added that it would not have passed inspections by the authorities ahead of getting its Temporary Occupation Permit if there was a ninth floor then. The illicitly constructed floor means that the owners had dodged paying a development charge to the URA. Based on the current rate of $3,850 per sq m for the sector that The Alexcier is located in, Mr Yeo should have paid over $1 million for the additional floor area if it had been approved. But for others, the discovery of the ninth floor has also raised questions about the building's structural soundness, given the additional load that may not have been factored in from the get-go. A former member of the building's management council, who asked not to be named, said: "We have been holding our meetings in the eighth-floor unit all these years and none of us knew about this ninth floor. "This is a safety issue that the authorities need to address quickly." The illicitly constructed floor means that the owners had dodged paying a development charge to the URA. Based on the current rate of $3,850 per sq m for the sector that The Alexcier is located in, Mr Yeo should have paid over $1 million for the additional floor area if it had been approved. The Alexcier's architect, Mr Chng, said the eighth floor - which comes with a 6.5m-high ceiling - will be able to take the extra load "because that was designed for an industrial racking system which is to take a lot of goods". Experts not related to the building are mixed in their views on whether the extra floor will pose any risk. Engineer David Ng, a member of The Institution of Engineers, Singapore's civil and structural technical committee, said an unauthorised extra floor would usually not have been taken into consideration in the design of building foundation and supporting columns. "This additional loading could result in a reduction of the required design factor of safety and if the additional load is significant, it may cause the supporting structure to be overstressed." Mr Albert Loh, who runs a structural, civil and mechanical engineering consultancy firm, said that "the biggest danger is getting the wrong person" to add in the extra floor. "If so, the floor is unsafe." Under the Building Control Act, anyone found guilty of carrying out unauthorised building works will be liable upon conviction to a fine of up to $200,000 and/or jail of up to two years. wow this building got 机关 like those in movies https://www.straitstimes.com/business/property/illegal-floor-found-in-industrial-building

For those who frequent this area to have mookata or shop at Sheng Siong nearby, please avoid parking by the road side (White zig zac or double yellow). Saw LTA officer there many times. Just earlier on, I stopped my car by the side to stretch my legs. I merely paced up and down the stretch of road (10min at most) and when I returned to my vehicle, the bike was parked right before my car. Gone case I thought. The officer was at a distance away. I didn't bother checking with him since he would have issued the summon long ago. It didn't cross my mind that there was no summon ticket! It was only after returning home then I realised that there wasn't any physical ticket. Upon checking my dashcam, I saw the officer looking around in front of my car. Not sure if he was being nice to give me a grace period. My vehicle definitely felt hot to the touch given the long drive prior to stopping. Lesson learnt- let your legs break or find a proper parking lot

Dear all Guru, Thank you for your interest in this post and time. I need a system 4 replacement, the old Toshiba having compressor problem so need a replacement system. Maybe is I mountain tortoise I just learnt about Mitsubishi heavy industry, their air con is more fancy have self clean function and more technology above all that it is more energy efficient as compared to Mitsubishi electrical. Mitsubishi electrical is where we all know Mr jack will clean his air con when he is not testing car suspension. For this it is a really old design, high sale volume and the removable fin for easy Limited cleaning. Any feedback from the two Mitsubishi air con. Anyway asked a air con he claim that heavy industry clog very easily which I doubt so but if he say Heavy industry would have a higher riskier of failure due to the new component I would agree. (side talk York aircon very fancy can wireless control air con(mountain tortoise) Rustyz

HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- Months before Shane Todd's girlfriend found his body hanging in his Singapore apartment last June, the engineer told his parents he thought his life was threatened and that he was being asked to do something that might hurt U.S. national security. They were skeptical from the start when a Singapore detective said their son killed himself by setting up an elaborate rope-and-pulley system in his bathroom, then jumping from a chair with a cord around his neck. It was only later they came to believe he had been murdered over his research in New Jersey into material used to make heat-resistant semiconductors, a technology with both civilian and military applications. Now Rick and Mary Todd's claims are gaining traction. They have enlisted the help of two U.S. senators to bring their case to the Obama administration's attention, and they are trying to keep up with numerous media requests spurred by a Financial Times article that broke the story last month. The Singapore government is continuing to investigate, with the FBI pledging assistance. "We would like a congressional investigation," Mary Todd said Thursday. "We want pressure put on the Singapore government to work with our government to get to the bottom of this and make the truth known." The Todds traveled from their Marion, Mont., home to Singapore after receiving word of their son's death, arriving just a few days after his body was found on June 24. In the apartment, they found signs that he was ready to leave Singapore for good the next week: a plane ticket to the U.S., packed clothes, furniture that had been tagged for sale. Other things didn't add up. In the bathroom, there was no sign that any ropes and pulleys had been there, Mary Todd said. There were no bolts in the walls, no holes where they might have been, and no evidence that quick repairs had been made to the smooth marble. Police showed them a suicide note that had been written on Shane Todd's computer. It was an obvious fake, Mary Todd said, because it thanked his former employer, the Institute of Microelectronics, a company he had grown to hate and had just recently resigned from after working there since 2010, included factually incorrect details and didn't sound like their son's writing. "Absolutely none of it made any sense. I knew at that point that he didn't write that note. From that point on, I believed he was murdered," Mary Todd said. It was a chance discovery that convinced them that Todd may have been killed over the research that he that he had been working on for IME. Before they left to go back to the U.S., his parents found what they thought was a speaker for his computer among Todd's belongings. "I said to my husband, 'Can one of the boys use this little speaker? Throw it in the bag,'" Mary Todd said. It turned out to be a hard drive missed by investigators that contained thousands of documents Todd had backed up from his work computer. After having it analyzed by a computer forensics expert, they found a couple of surprises. First, the files had been accessed twice soon after their son's death. Second, the drive contained a draft of a project outline between IME and the Chinese telecom giant Huawei on the development of an amplifier device that utilized a material used in semiconductors called gallium nitride. Todd had been researching the heat-resistant material that has both civilian uses in products like LED screens and cellphone towers, and military applications in things like radar and satellite systems. He had been trained in New Jersey on proprietary equipment that produces the material but is restricted for export because of the potential military applications. Rick and Mary Todd said they concluded that Shane Todd had been asked to hand over technology related to his research that he believed would be used to advance Chinese military systems. Shortly before his death, in February 2012, he started expressing concerns to his parents. "He said, 'I think they've asked me to compromise U.S. security. I feel like I would be betraying my country.' But he didn't give us the specifics," Rick Todd said. He grew more anxious in the weeks leading up to his death, and told his parents to contact the U.S. Embassy if he missed one of their weekly calls, Rick and Mary Todd said. IME said in a statement that neither Todd nor the company was involved in any classified research project. Scott Sykes, a Huawei vice president and head of international media affairs, said in a statement the Chinese company "does not do" military equipment or technology, and its research and sales relate only to civil and commercial telecommunications. IME approached the Chinese company once but Huawei decided not to accept and has no "cooperation with IME related to" gallium nitride, Sykes said in the statement. The Todds asked for a coroner's inquiry and then hired a pathologist to draw an independent conclusion on the cause of their son's death. Dr. Edward Adelstein, chief of pathology for the Harry S. Truman Veterans Hospital in Missouri, found that injuries on Shane Todd's hands showed he had been in a fight. Adelstein also concluded that Todd was strangled by a binding of some type, then hanged after he had died in order to obscure the actual cause of death. The Singapore Police Force said in a statement they have asked for the FBI's assistance in persuading the Todds to share the evidence they have. The FBI has said it will comply with the request, Eric Watnik, spokesman for the US embassy in Singapore, said in a statement. The Todds said they would feel comfortable handing over the hard drive only if the FBI takes over as the lead agency investigating the death. They have enlisted the help of U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester of Montana. Baucus met with Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday to brief Kerry on the situation. He has also met with Singapore's U.S. ambassador. "The Todd's incredible love for their son and commitment to justice is nothing short of inspiring. I saw it in their eyes, and that's what is driving me to do everything in my power to make sure no stone is left unturned in this case," Baucus said. ___ AP writers Faris Mokhtar in Singapore and Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report. http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/parents-s...-180817197.html .

Hi, Any bro can recommend one which doesnt chop my carrot head? I think my fuse and a few light bulbs burnt. Thanks!

Will HDB play the same card?

Dear all, Just to share with all of you to prevent another victim $ been suck away. This morning my ride was parked at block 186 along woodland Industrial Park E6. While waiting for my wife (Driving lesson) and having breakfast from 10.30am to 12.30pm, my ride was clamped by the premises management. I went to ask them for a reason and the man told me I have exceeded the grace period of 1 hr. I was puzzled and asked him where was the sign board. His reply was that there is a warning notice when I drive into the CP. I was like "WTF". I went to see the sign board which indicated only "Unauthorized, Indiscriminate or Illegally parked vehicles will be wheel clamped" BUT it doesnt indicate the grace period. :angry: I have no time to argue but to pay $100 for them to release the wheel clamp. Sway! :angry:

hi guys, I'm looking to buy a couple of industrial 12V AGM batteries. I want the biggest baddest battery out there. Importing batteries from the US is super expensive, so if anyone is in this particular industry ( maybe do forklift batteries etc etc), do let me know where i can buy this from. I'm looking at this for my sound system :) If possible, 200Ah per batt would be best :) thanks in advance Cheers!

My nephew told me he's currently being paid $4500/month as an attachment student doing backend IT work. No bonds attached He's doing one semester of attachment with Barclay as part of the University engineering curriculum. Didn't know that the economy is thriving so well that students can get so much allowance! Take home for the day: GO WORK IN BANKS? Mod i'm sorri. I wanted to put this in the Lite N easy instead. pls help me move this thread. thanks

HI all, Need to know where is the cheapest season parking at AMK industrial park 2 (near STM) Thanks

Any diesel-heads here can tell me where those OEM diesel pumps in the West/Central are located? Currently, I only know of 2 but they're both in the East/North-East. Willy Petroleum - Kallang Distripark Ah Huat - Defu Lane 7 And if anyone refers me to Eurovanclub, I'd already posted there but it was deleted because the information is only available in their forums open to registered members. Since I don't drive a Eurovan, registering (not free) will be pointless.