Chinatown Business Association wins tender to manage iconic Smith Street in Chinatown
The Chinatown Business Association (CBA) has won the tender for a row of iconic shophouses throughout Smith Road in Chinatown. CBA contains stakeholders running in Chinatown, such as business leaders, grassroots leaders, Chinese clan associations, hoteliers, hawkers and merchants.
“This experience is distinct to CBA, and we hope to utilize on our partnerships in the community and expertise of Chinatown Singapore’s heritage and society to infuse more excitement to Smith Street and Chinatown Singapore,” says Lim.
“Visitors to Chinatown Singapore can look forward to more curated offerings and backgrounds for both locals and visitors upon the completion of the Smith Street rejuvenation project. We are looking to bring in a lot more engaging and experiential neighborhood programs, along with even more various offerings just like creative way of life, retail industry and co-living/co-working approaches, whilst maintaining and celebrating the place’s ethnic and architectural ancestry,” says Lim Yick Suan, managing director, Chinatown Business Association.
Lim says that the tender activity was “very challenging” but CBA benefitted from its energetic existence in the district for over 20 years. “Over the 2 decades, we have actually developed and nurtured relationships, and this has afforded us an ingrained connection to the ground,” she claims. The organisation has indeed arranged past event such as wide-scale festival events such as 5 Footway Festival and Dumpling Festival, to motif markets, street tasks, events and workshops.
The tender to select a sole master renter to oversee the historical row of shophouses at 11 to 37 Smith Street was jointly introduced by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) back in November in 2023.
The tender was assessed based upon cost and the top quality of each provided approach. It drew in five different bidders when the tender came March, involving CBA which submitted the winning proposal of $123,000. As the master lessee, CBA will manage the buildings for 5 years plus a second term of four years.
She includes that CBA will present “distinctly Singaporean F&B offerings and international food offers for both residents and travelers to enjoy at Smith Road”.
According to SLA, the revitalised Smith Street will view a brand-new line-up of way of life practices and eating experiences. It states that CBA’s pitch of “separated way of living ideas, corresponding programmes and improvements to the general public realm intends to further promote regional Chinese heritage and build up the identification of the location”.
Noontalk Media submitted the highest possible quote of $180,000, followed by runner-up CBA. Other quotes ranged from $108,174 from Benlo Ventures to $68,177 from ABR Holdings and a $53,000 quote from IGYM Fitness.
The master renter are going to take on the combined management of the shophouses and an adjacent State land plot, which have a total acreage of 34,066 sq ft and an approximated gross flooring location of 33,065 sq ft.
