New Fullerton Heritage zone has luxury retail and dining outlets to draw the well-heeled

RAFFLES Place may be best known as the arena where high-flying bankers and corporate executives slog away for handsome salaries. But a small patch of it is set to become a luxury retail haven where they can spend their hard-earned cash on art, jewellery and fine dining.

The waterfront strip around the historic Collyer Quay is being transformed into a playground for well-heeled locals and tourists, as developers of the Fullerton Heritage zone seek to lure these big spenders away from Orchard Road.

Features range from a luxury retail cluster in The Fullerton Hotel to a classy Chinese restaurant and bar in Clifford Pier by Hong Kong’s trendy Aqua restaurant group.

The overriding strategy is clearly to pull in the well-to-do who might normally shop and dine in and around Orchard Road, the country’s main shopping belt.

The Fullerton Heritage’s general manager, Ms Sulian Tan-Wijaya, said the waterfront destination will ‘create a new luxury retail cluster that currently does not exist in the Raffles Place area’.

Its expected clientele will include business and leisure travellers, executives from the Central Business District (CBD) and new Marina Bay Financial Centre, casino patrons and residents from upcoming condominiums nearby like The Sail and Marina Bay Residences.

The retail element will be concentrated at The Fullerton Hotel, where under-utilised conference rooms have been converted into more than 5,000 sq ft of space for five shops.

The retailers include London-based Singapore fashion designer Ashley Isham; jewellers Mouawad, Vois and Raffles Jeweller; and a high-end Chinese and Asian contemporary art gallery called I Preciation.

I Preciation has been operating since 2003, while the remaining four will open by July - in time to cash in on the Formula One Grand Prix that is expected to draw 240,000 spectators in September.

Ms Tan-Wijaya is confident that the outlets will enjoy ‘a steady stream of business’ despite the hefty price tags, as 80 per cent of The Fullerton Hotel’s guests are corporate clients.

Brisk sales at I Preciation, where art works go for anything between $10,000 and $4 million, back up her view.

The majority of its clients are executives, high-net worth individuals and keen collectors who work in the CBD, said Mr C.T. Lim, one of the gallery’s two owners.

Raffles Jeweller director Margaret Lau said she was lured to The Fullerton Hotel from Orchard Road, where she has been operating for the last 15 years.

She said the hotel’s rent is not lower than that in Orchard Road, but she looks forward to ‘the prospect of opening up the business to an international corporate clientele’.

She is also confident that her regular clients will make the trip to this newly designated ‘destination shopping’ zone to buy her bling.

The Fullerton Heritage refers to a string of buildings and land opposite Marina Bay owned by Hong Kong-based Sino Land, the sister company of Singapore property giant Far East Organization.

They include existing buildings One Fullerton, The Fullerton Hotel, The Fullerton Waterboat House, Clifford Pier and Customs House.

Sino Land, which is controlled by the family of property magnate Ng Teng Fong, won the tender for the Collyer Quay corridor in December 2006 with a bid of $165.8 million.

Its ambitious plan to revamp the existing buildings while preserving the area’s distinctive architecture is part of larger plans to rejuvenate the Marina Bay area by 2010.

It is also building a luxury boutique hotel called The Fullerton Bay Hotel, which will have 98 rooms with water views, on the site.

Appetites will be catered for with One Fullerton set for an August relaunch with four new eateries.

And Aqua, famed in Hong Kong for its ultra-stylish harbourfront restaurant in Kowloon, will unveil its plans for its ‘Chinese fine-dining’ restaurant in Clifford Pier later this year.

‘We see The Fullerton Heritage as helping to enhance Singapore’s position as a leading tourist, business and lifestyle destination,’ said Ms Tan-Wijaya.

Source : Straits Times - 20 May 2008

Waterfront area around Marina Bay to be transformed over next few years

TALL wooden hoardings now block off both ends of the once-bustling thoroughfare of Change Alley.

The moneychangers after whom it was named are long gone. All is eerily quiet at the glass-framed bridge linking Collyer Quay and Raffles Place.

However, the 32-year-old landmark will be reborn in 2010 as a shopping arcade with 12 retail shops, as part of a multimillion-dollar makeover now taking place at historic Collyer Quay.

It’s just one of many changes in the waterfront area of Marina Bay that are set to create a buzz.

The eight-year-old One Fullerton, a three-storey entertainment complex occupying a prime spot along the quay, will be relaunched in August with four new eateries.

Business owners there are racing to open new restaurants and bars in time to cash in on the three-day Formula One SingTel Singapore Grand Prix that is expected to draw 240,000 spectators in September.

The new eateries include Forlino, a 5,000 sq ft traditional Italian restaurant to be helmed by Michelin-star chef Osvaldo Forlino from Italy. It is run by Mr Beppe de Vito, who owns the Il Lido Italian restaurant at Sentosa Golf Club.

Hotelier Loh Lik Peng, who owns the hip New Majestic and 1929 hotels, will open an upscale 80-seat Cantonese restaurant on the ground floor.

Even the space under the Esplanade Bridge next to One Fullerton has been transformed. A $500,000 Spanish-themed bar, The Tapas Tree, which can seat 120 people, will open there.

These will add to One Fullerton’s current crop of 10 food and office tenants, some of which are undergoing renovations.

The changes come as the entire Fullerton strip waterfront area gears up to cater to F1 crowds, office workers in the vicinity, and the tourist throngs expected to be drawn to the rejuvenated Marina Bay, once it is completed.

Next to One Fullerton, the newly refurbished Clifford Pier will reopen with a restaurant and bar by September.

Both One Fullerton and Clifford Pier are part of an area being transformed by developer Sino Group into a waterfront development called The Fullerton Heritage. It will feature a new 98-room Fullerton Bay Hotel and a dining zone in the old double-storey Customs House, both of which will open next year.

And in 2010, diners can look forward to a rooftop restaurant overlooking Marina Bay at the new 50, Collyer Quay office building on the site of the former Overseas Union House.

The 18-storey block is being developed at a cost of $257 million by Clifford Development, a wholly owned subsidiary of Overseas Union Enterprise.

Next to it, the Change Alley Aerial Plaza Tower, a 39m-tall tower that once housed the popular Red Lantern Restaurant, will be upgraded from September. In 2010, it will reopen with two Chinese eateries on the fourth and fifth levels.

Urban Redevelopment Authority director for urban planning and design Fun Siew Leng says the developments, together with international events such as the F1 and Singapore Biennale 2008, will contribute to its vision of Marina Bay as an exciting and vibrant waterfront destination.

Diners such as administration manager Celeste Lim, 27, cannot wait for the revamped Collyer Quay. ‘With the new eateries and bars, it will be the next hot spot. Also, the view at the waterfront will be spectacular, as it overlooks the Singapore Flyer and upcoming Marina Sands integrated resort.’

Source : Straits Times - 26 Apr 2008