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History of Tanglin Village
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Tanglin Village proves hot property for businesses
Offers flood in for two recently released plots, with top rental offer at five times the guide rent
By Fiona Chan
TANGLIN Village, the latest lifestyle hot spot in town, is drawing massive crowds to its range of newly opened shops and restaurants.
And where consumers and foodies flock, so do business people. They have descended on the prime Dempsey Road enclave in a bid to clinch the remaining pieces of land.
Tanglin Village's short-term leases - usually for three years, as the land is slated for residential use after 2015 - have not deterred tenants, said the Singapore Land Authority (SLA). It said businesses are confident of reaping most of their investments in the first three years.
Offers have poured in for two Tanglin Village plots released recently, said the SLA, which is managing the development.
A former chapel site at 39C Harding Road drew a record 23 bids when its tender closed last month. The top rental offer was $56,000 a month - five times the guide rent, SLA said.
It was put in by Ponte & Partners, the Singapore-based firm that brought in German brewery Paulaner Brauhaus at Millenia Walk.
The Harding Road property, which has a gross floor area of 4,456 sq ft, is safeguarded for conservation. It sits on a 43,172 sq ft plot.
Most of the other bidders for the site were also from the food and beverage industry, including Da Paolo Ristorante Italiano, Palm Beach Seafood and Select Catering Services.
A second site, at 45 Minden Road, was similarly popular with 15 bidders lodging offers. The highest was $51,000 a month, or more than double the $22,000 guide rent.
It came from the Siam Silk Company, a unit of Thailand's Thai Silk Company, which was founded by the renowned Jim Thompson.
If it is awarded the 30,631 sq ft property - which has 10,156 sq ft of gross floor area - the firm plans to open a Jim Thompson Thai restaurant and wine bar, said Mr Steve Benhar, corporate counsel for the Thai Silk Company. The eatery will feature private indoor dining and a garden bar.
The strong response to the two sites is testament to how hot Tanglin Village has become in recent months.
A year ago, a building with 13,000 sq ft of gross floor area drew only 11 rental bids - the highest just $23,000 a month. Oosh, an alfresco bar and restaurant, is now operating at the site.
Earlier this year, some 27 sub-tenant businesses faced the prospect of being evicted when their master tenant, Tanglin Warehouse, fell behind in its rental payments to the SLA.
This was averted after Tanglin Warehouse settled the arrears in full.
And things have picked up quickly since then. In the last six months, 25 firms have set up shop in the area, according to the SLA.
Their offerings run a wide gamut, from restaurants and shops to education and entertainment centres. Some tenants even use the space for offices.
The burst of activity has brought occupancy at Tanglin Village to more than 70 per cent, said the SLA's chief executive, Brigadier-General (NS) Lam Joon Khoi.
'Tanglin Village tenders so far have attracted a number of entrepreneurs to build their dream businesses,' he told The Straits Times.
To better serve these tenants and their customers, the SLA intends to review 'basic infrastructural improvements', such as road paving, lighting and utilities, BG Lam added.
More tenants, including an international school, are also expected to make their homes in the area soon.
It is also understood that a brewery will open, as well as an Italian restaurant and an outlet for the Long Beach Seafood restaurant chain.
Tanglin Village's success has spurred the SLA to examine uses for other enclaves such as Keat Hong camp in Choa Chu Kang - a former Singapore Armed Forces camp - and Phoenix Park in Tanglin Road, the former headquarters of the Home Affairs Ministry.
[email protected]
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[QUOTE=RafflesCity;15542298]25 Sep 07
URA reserve site at Jalan Sultan for commercial development is now open for application
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) today released the detailed sales conditions for a reserve site at Jalan Sultan for commercial development. Developers interested in purchasing the site can now apply to URA for it to be put up for tender.
The sale site at Jalan Sultan which is located within the gazetted Kampong Glam Conservation Area is one of the sites in the Government Land Sales Reserve List for the second half of 2007 as announced by the Ministry of National Development on 14 June 2007.
Land Parcel at Jalan Sultan
This Land Parcel has a site area of 0.14 ha and consists of 17 units of existing two-storey conservation buildings to be restored. The successful tenderer is required to restore and reconstruct these conservation shophouses in accordance with the Tender Conditions and Conservation Guidelines for Historic District. The sale of the Land Parcel will facilitate the early restoration of the conserved shophouses in the area and add vibrancy to Kampong Glam Historic District. As the 17 units of shophouses are sold as a single Land Parcel, it is very suitable for any investor who wants to develop the shophouses for hotel or office.
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[QUOTE=RafflesCity;13813611]Chill-Out-Street
17 Jun 07
Kampong Glam has come alive with new shops and cafes to rival Holland Village in the hip quotient
CALL it the Kampong that has gone Glam.
Come to Kampong Glam on a warm Sunday afternoon and you can chill out at an alfresco cafe such as Kampong Glam Cafe in Bali Lane or Sleepy Sam's in Bussorah Street, watch tourists rummage through wares in souvenir shops and backpackers check into a hostel.
The 8.9ha historical site is bounded by Ophir Road, Victoria Street, Jalan Sultan and Beach Road, with the golden dome of Sultan Mosque serving as a prominent landmark.
After you have drunk your $6 iced karkadeh or hibiscus tea, you head to a nearby alley where small, quaint boutiques line both sides. You window-shop a bit before popping into a small cinema to catch an indie film for free if you spend $5 on food and drinks.
Night falls. You join the nocturnal creatures at a bar where a band plays jazz.
All of it sounds like a lot of fun, and it is. In the last two years, Kampong Glam has shed its sleepy, low-profile image to rival Holland Village and Siglap in the cool sweepstakes, attracting teens, yuppies and tourists.
It's a far cry from the 1800s when it was designated as the Islamic quarter. It was a residential area for many Malays and Arabs during the British colonial years.
Fast-forward to today and you meet a new crowd, like British tourist, graphic designer Anju Kathuria, 27, whom LifeStyle spotted window-shopping.
He says: 'It's the coolest part of Singapore. There are many individual shops, each has its identity and is very design-driven, unlike the run-of-the-mill shops in the malls.'
From minimalist fashion boutiques and kitsch antique shops to Arabic restaurants and cosy bistros, the mainly low-rise area of two-storey shophouses has become a vibrant village.
Dr Ameen Talib, president of the Kampong Glam Business Association, says many of the more than 200 shops in the area have seen a 20 to 50 per cent increase in revenue since 2004, when the economy started to recover from Sept 11 and Sars.
The road to its present hipness can be traced back to 2001 when Dr Ameen, a business consultant, opened Cafe le Caire @ AlMajlis in Arab Street.
It spawned at least five other Arabic restaurants. Expats and young office workers began to take notice and came in droves at night.
Another boost came in 2004 when retailers worked with the Singapore Tourism Board to organise an Arab Heritage Week to ride on the area's historical and cultural lineage.
The opening of the Malay Heritage Centre in November that year complemented the grand Sultan Mosque, attracting more tourists.
In 2005, the area also popped up on fashionistas' radar when Mr Theseus Chan opened his second Comme des Garcons Guerilla Store in Haji Lane.
The store, known for its hit-and-run tactics - it has been opening and closing unadvertised, temporary outlets in obscure locations - retails edgy designs from the Paris-based label Commes des Garcons.
Mr Chan, who is also the founder of Work Advertising, recalls: 'I saw the area having an atmosphere not like any other in Singapore. Its laid-back bohemian feel was what I was after at that time. More importantly, it wasn't trendy then.'
Although the store has since moved to its present Bukit Merah premises, many start-ups like Barong and Lola have since sprung up and transformed Haji Lane into a designer street.
Arty venues like the indie film gallery Pitch Black have also moved in in the past three months.
Full-time national serviceman Timothy Koh, 22, who comes at least once a month with friends to shop, says: 'The brands offered are different from what you can get in the department stores and the range is getting better.'
Certainly, the retail mix has changed in the area gazetted in 1989 by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), then the Urban Renewal Authority, as a conservation site.
By 1997, 48 shophouses had been restored by the URA and sold to landlords and retailers.
Mr Jamal Kazura is one of them. His perfume shop in Bussorah Street has been around since 1995.
He says that in the first few years, the new shopowners were mainly textile wholesalers who needed a storefront to showcase their goods.
'People who came here were businessmen from the region and Muslims who had just finished their prayers at Sultan Mosque,' he recalls.
Shopowners are keeping their fingers crossed that the boom will last for rent has skyrocketed as the human traffic increased.
Mr Jamal says a 2,000 sq ft space costs about $6,000 a month now, whereas three years ago, it was only $2,500 at most.
Some shopowners say that prime lots in Haji Lane and Bussorah Lane are going for $8,000 a month.
Mr Anilkant, a textile exporter in Haji Lane, says he has seen at least six shops come and go over the past two years.
Ms Eileen Fam of Lola says if the rent continues to rise, entrepreneurs like herself will be forced to pull out.
She declines to say how much she is paying for the 750 sq ft space in Haji Lane, although she has about a year more of her lease to run.
She laments that while there are more people coming into her shop in the past year, most are browsers.
Mr Anilkant concurs: 'If you count the number of customers going out of the shop on one hand and the number of shopping bags they have on the other, the latter will not move at all.'
The increased traffic ironically could also put off potential customers. Says student Michael Toh, 23: 'The appeal of Kampong Glam is that it is a place to chill. If it becomes too crowded, the charm is lost.'
Former property agent Aileen Tan, who opened Blu Jaz Cafe about two years ago, is optimistic, though. She expects to break even by next year.
She usually sees a full-house crowd on Friday nights in the 100-seater, mostly from the offices nearby.
She says: 'There is a magical kampung charm here that you just can't find anywhere else. I think that alone will attract people to come.'
By Lee Sze Yong[/QUOTE] |
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Nine Kg Glam land parcels auctioned for $10.86 million
NINE parcels of unrestored conservation shophouses in Kampong Glam were auctioned for $10.86 million yesterday.
Three of the land parcels are at North Bridge Road, four at Jalan Sultan, and one each at Arab Street and Jalan Pinang. All are zoned for commercial use and are on 99-year leases.
The highest amount paid was $3.78 million for 101 Jalan Sultan with a site area of 350.6 sq metres, working out to about $10,781 per sq m of land. The site was bought by O&Y Builders Pte Ltd.
O&Y Builders also bought the adjacent site, 105 Jalan Sultan, for $1.32 million, making its total purchase $5.1 million. Its managing director Ong Poi Hwa said while this was a high price to pay, he had to get both sites because of related interests in some of the surrounding units. He said he has plans to link the units up to operate a hotel or food and beverage business. Mr Ong is managing director of several other companies, including Aliwal Park Hotel and Asphodel Inn.
Choy Chan Pong, land administration director at the Urban Redevelopment Authority, said that the prices at yesterday's auction were higher than those in the previous two auctions for unrestored shophouses in the same area.
While the prices paid yesterday ranged from about $5,500 to $10,800 per sq m, the prices which the auction in March obtained ranged from about $3,100 to $6,400 psm. And the first auction, in May 2005, saw prices ranging from about $3,200 to $4,700 psm.
One reason could be that the auction was the first time that unrestored conservation shophouses in Jalan Sultan were sold, which fetched the highest prices - the four sites there all selling for over a million dollars each, while the other sites all fetched under a million. |
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The Sultan Mosque
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[QUOTE=RafflesCity;9993733]The lightup at Kampong Glam:
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2. One of the cafes and bars in the area
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[QUOTE=RafflesCity;9993743]The heart of royalty, the Istana.
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2. Traditional Malay musicians
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[QUOTE=RafflesCity;10036674]Some details of Sultan Mosque
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Post time 4-11-2007 02:07 AM
[/QUOTE]
