Marina Square gets $95m expansion

SINGAPORE - In its first major redevelopment since 2006, Marina Square shopping mall is adding two new wings to its premises.

The first is a new gourmet dining zone, branded as The Dining Edition, which will be completed by June. The second is a retail wing slated for completion in Q4 next year.

The $15 million dining wing and the $80 million retail area are two phases of Marina Square's $95 million revamp, which is aimed at repositioning the mall as an upscale destination.

The Dining Edition will feature 16 food and beverage (F&B) outlets, of which six are new-to-market brands: Carnivore Appetite, Hamanoya, Lady M, Menzo Butao, Nuvo and Supreme Tastes Jiang Nan Cuisine.

Chan Yien Mei, general manager of Marina Centre Holdings, said that the brands were selected in line with the mall's positioning, which is focused on upscale offerings.

The Dining Edition has around 90 per cent committed occupancy, with 14 F&B tenants secured and already in the process of renovation.

The new three-storey retail wing, when completed, will add 60 to 80 shops across 150,000 sq ft of net leasable space, which Ms Chan called the equivalent of "an entire suburban mall" in size.

The retail wing, which would focus on upscale brands, will have 200m of frontage facing the Marina Bay area. Ms Chan described it as "a growing catchment with an excellent profile".

She revealed that Marina Square was in discussion with potential tenants, though no deals had been closed. Work on the new wing has begun, under DP Architects and contractor Shimizu Corp.

Ms Chan declined to disclose rental prices for the new wings, saying only that they would be "competitive" and that Marina Centre Holdings was "benchmarked against the kind of returns that a Reit (real estate investment trust) would be expected to achieve".

Ms Chan said that she hopes that the redevelopment will increase the mall's traffic by 10-20 per cent, on a par with the surge in volume that the mall experienced after its 2006 refurbishment.

Marina Square currently has around 250 shops and 600,000 sq ft of net leasable area, 75 per cent of which is used for retail, leisure and lifestyle purposes, while the remaining quarter consists of F&B stores.

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