Taken from
Today article (Friday July 14, 2006)
Scotts to close by year end for 'super luxury'
homes
Christie Loh
[email protected]
THIS Christmas will be a tad sentimental for some when the iconic
Scotts Shopping Centre shuts its doors on Dec 31 after 22 years in
the Orchard district.
By that day, the 70-odd tenants will have moved out of the mall,
according to a letter sent out earlier this week to shopowners from
landlord Wheelock Properties.
Also ceasing operations will be The Ascott Singapore serviced
apartments, which were the country's first when the Jumabhoy family
opened them in 1984.
The existing building will be torn down by mid-next year to be
replaced by a "super luxury residential and retail development", a
Wheelock spokeswoman told Today when contacted, without
elaborating.
She added that a name change was likely although "kind of early to
say now".
Already, physical changes are evident.
Luxury watch retailer Hour Glass moved out last month, but stayed
close by at Tang Plaza about 200m away. Over in the basement of
Scotts, music chain Gramophone is trumpeting a "moving out
sale".
"It's a very sad thing," said Mr Anthony Chia, branch manager of
Watches of Switzerland, one of the first retailers to set up shop
in the mall.
Even newer tenant Kiehl's, a New York-based cosmetic retailer, is
getting a "a little sentimental" about closing its first flagship
store, set up in Scotts in Nov 2004, brand manager Lynda Lee told
Today.
For Crème, a cosmetics and skincare distributor, finding a
replacement to its only retail outlet will be tough.
"Our customers are so comfortable with the set-up even though it's
an old building. When the tai-tais come in, there's not much of a
crowd and most of the stores here give personalised service, unlike
at big department stores," said Ms Nisha Kader, retail operations
director of Crème's parent firm Cosmetique Essential.
Yet, from the developer's perspective, it is also Scotts' very
location that will rake in big money when the overhaul is completed
by 2010.
"Nothing can match it," said Mr Lui Seng Fatt, regional director
and head of investments at property research firm Jones Lang
LaSalle, citing the proximity of the Orchard MRT station and the
shopping belt.
In place of the existing 23-storey serviced residence, Wheelock is
planning to build 300 freehold homes in a 43-storey tower, as well
as upmarket retail space spread over two floors and a
basement.
Mr Lui estimates that the residential units will draw as much as
$2,500 per square foot, similar to the prices attracted by City
Developments' St Regis Residences, a top-end condominium on nearby
Cuscaden Road.
If that materialises, Wheelock would make a handsome profit, having
acquired the Scotts Road property from The Ascott Group in June
2004 for $345 million.
Mr Lui expects half of the buyers of the Scotts redevelopment to be
foreign investors, who by 2009 will also get to pick from the
upcoming 99-year leasehold Orchard Turn retail-cum-residential
project by CapitaLand and Hong Kong's Sun Hung Kai Properties.
