Mall to open despite building buzz all round
Straits Times, The (Singapore)
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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