Mall to open despite
building buzz all round
Straits Times, The
(Singapore)
Home
February 6, 2007
Author: Marcel Lee Pereira
THE rebuilt Leisure Park Kallang will open its doors this year,
even as its surroundings turn into a massive construction
site.
The now six-storey mall is in the final stages of its
one-and-a-half-year $70 million redevelopment, and will open
sometime in September.
Its neighbour, Kallang Theatre, will close on March 31. The
authorities are considering what the building will be used for,
pending the site's redevelopment.
Meanwhile, construction work will be going on in the area for the
next three to four years, as the National Stadium makes way later
this year for a new Sports Hub and an MRT Circle Line station takes
shape.
Leisure Park Kallang's owner and developer, Jack Investment, the
same company that won a tender for an urban entertainment centre in
Bugis in 2005, is confident of bringing in the crowds.
It expects over 100 retailers in the mall when it opens.
The anchor tenants include the famous Kallang Bowl, which will
reopen with 22 lanes, together with a 10,500 sq ft ice-skating rink
and an 8,000 sq ft foodcourt.
Already, more than half the mall's 210,000 sq ft has been taken up,
with retailers paying about $12 to $20 per sq ft in rent, slightly
higher than what was charged before the revamp, but lower than the
$15 to $30 per sq ft charged in suburban malls.
It is being touted as an entertainment and retail destination, with
40 per cent of the mall set aside for retail, compared to about 15
per cent previously.
There will also be a six-hall cineplex, an amusement arcade, a
20,000 sq ft Shop N Save supermarket, and four large atriums.
Diners can enjoy alfresco meals on rooftop pavilions.
The revamp is its second since Jack Investment bought over the site
in 1989.
The company will operate the bowling alley and the ice-skating
rink, which can also be used for skating competitions and training,
and will be the largest rink in Singapore.
Even before the Sports Hub is up in 2011, it will have the company
of two other neighbouring facilities, the Singapore Indoor Stadium
and the Oasis complex.
Jack Investment's business development manager Han Minli pointed
out that the old Leisure Park was doing well until construction on
the Circle Line started a few years ago, and most operators stayed
until the last day.
Some of the previous tenants are keen on returning, she added, but
it is likely that with its family focus, the nightclub popular in
the past will not be allowed back.
'We are capitalising on the fact that there is a lack of shopping
malls within the east area,' said Ms Han.
Copyright, 2007, Singapore Press Holdings Limited
