reporter2
10-11-12, 14:00
http://www.straitstimes.com/supplements/saturday-special-report/story/place-live-work-and-play-20121110
THE REMAKING OF THE CBD
A place to live, work and play
For years the Central Business District was simply a place where people went to work. Tens of thousands poured into the area every morning and left it empty every evening. But all that has changed. The CBD has greatly expanded, not only in size but also in terms of the amenities it offers. It is now a place where people live, work and play, as Yasmine Yahya finds out.
Published on Nov 10, 2012
http://www.straitstimes.com/sites/straitstimes.com/files/imagecache/story-gallery-featured/ST_20121110_YYMARINA10_3381817e.jpg
LeVel 33, a brewery and restaurant in Tower 1 of Marina Bay Financial Centre, caters to those who want to have a drink or two after work in the Central Business District area. Developments like this have helped to change the image of the CBD from a purely business-oriented location to one which has an entertaining nightlife. -- ST PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA
How it all began
BY THE middle of the last century, most of Singapore's commercial activity centred on the Government offices on St Andrew's Road and Empress Place. Raffles Place, Robinson Road and Collyer Quay were traditionally regarded as the trading centre where banks, general ship suppliers and money changers set up shop.
Towards the end of the 1960s, the Government put up five vacant plots of land along Shenton Way for sale.
These sites were developed into Robina House, Shing Kwan House, Shenton House, UIC Building and Marina House. Of these, only Shenton House remains.
Early on, the Government designated the Golden Shoe area, which included Shenton Way and Raffles Place, as a development area.
Tenanted pre-war properties were freed from rent control, recounts Knight Frank chairman Tan Tiong Cheng.
Buildings that soon sprung up included OCBC Building, OUB Centre (now One Raffles Place), Ocean Building (now Ocean Financial Centre), The Arcade and Clifford Centre.
Shenton Way and Robinson Road formed the nucleus of the Central Business District in the 1970s, but gave up this title to Raffles Place by the mid-1980s when OUB Building, then Singapore's tallest office building, was launched, Mr Tan says.
"The Raffles Place MRT station was opened in 1987, and when that happened the gravitational pull was again towards Raffles Place.
"But Shenton Way had its importance too because DBS Bank was there and a lot of other financial institutions were there, such as Citibank at Robina House."
Today, however, the heart of the CBD is in Marina Bay, Mr Tan says.
The latest phase of the CBD
IN 1996, then Minister for National Development Lim Hng Kiang said the Government would focus on building up Marina Bay into Singapore's new downtown - to be an integrated working, living and recreational area.
Marina Bay is a 360ha plot created from reclaiming land off the seafront at Collyer Quay. Within this, about 80ha was designated an extension of "traditional" CBD sites Raffles Place, Shenton Way and Tanjong Pagar, already measuring 82ha.
As a result, the CBD has almost doubled in size. The amount of office space in this enlarged CBD is expected to more than double to 52 million sq ft when Marina Bay's development potential is fully realised, property consultancy CBRE said.
Today, there are more than 5.5 million sq ft of Grade A office space in the buildings there, including Asia Square and the three towers of Marina Bay Financial Centre (MBFC).
About 65 per cent of the space at these buildings is taken up by financial firms such as DBS Bank, Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank.
Playing in the CBD
ASIDE from swankier office space, the addition of Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands and the Marina Bay Cruise Centre has added a dash of leisure and fun.
Joggers, once a rare breed in the CBD, are now a common sight, wending their way across Collyer Quay and Marina Boulevard.
The Lawn at Marina Bay, along Marina Boulevard, is a large patch of green where people are often seen exercising in small groups after 5pm.
For those who prefer knocking back a drink or two after work, a crop of new eateries, bars and pubs that open late into the night now liven up the whole area.
Harry's Bar and the Boulevard Bayfront restaurant-bar at MBFC's Ground Plaza are the hang-outs among professionals who work in the three towers, as is brewery and restaurant LeVel 33 at Tower 1.
Mr Tony Padgett, head of corporate real estate services at Barclays, says the whole area is usually buzzing until about 10pm. On Friday nights, the crowd stays later, until 11pm or midnight.
Mr Jai Ganesh, a senior manager at an international bank, says this transformation has made Singapore as lively and vibrant as Hong Kong.
"It's quite different now in the new CBD and that has really bumped up the cool factor. There's more life to it now," says the Singaporean, who moved to Hong Kong two years ago but comes back regularly.
"In terms of shopping, food, both are top-notch. Nightlife and entertainment are pretty much the same. Both are just as crowded and lively."
Living in the CBD
WHILE some 200,000 professionals work in the CBD in the day, as many as 17,000 people now call it home.
Since 2007, the stock of residential apartments has doubled, and there are now between 3,000 and 3,500 units in the area, including those at Icon in Tanjong Pagar, with CBRE expecting a further 3,400 homes to be built from now to 2018.
"We are halfway from the end point of the CBD's development," says Knight Frank's Mr Tan. "What has been developed so far can satisfy our needs for the next five years or so but beyond that, the CBD can expand further, either east or west."
[email protected]
THE REMAKING OF THE CBD
A place to live, work and play
For years the Central Business District was simply a place where people went to work. Tens of thousands poured into the area every morning and left it empty every evening. But all that has changed. The CBD has greatly expanded, not only in size but also in terms of the amenities it offers. It is now a place where people live, work and play, as Yasmine Yahya finds out.
Published on Nov 10, 2012
http://www.straitstimes.com/sites/straitstimes.com/files/imagecache/story-gallery-featured/ST_20121110_YYMARINA10_3381817e.jpg
LeVel 33, a brewery and restaurant in Tower 1 of Marina Bay Financial Centre, caters to those who want to have a drink or two after work in the Central Business District area. Developments like this have helped to change the image of the CBD from a purely business-oriented location to one which has an entertaining nightlife. -- ST PHOTO: CAROLINE CHIA
How it all began
BY THE middle of the last century, most of Singapore's commercial activity centred on the Government offices on St Andrew's Road and Empress Place. Raffles Place, Robinson Road and Collyer Quay were traditionally regarded as the trading centre where banks, general ship suppliers and money changers set up shop.
Towards the end of the 1960s, the Government put up five vacant plots of land along Shenton Way for sale.
These sites were developed into Robina House, Shing Kwan House, Shenton House, UIC Building and Marina House. Of these, only Shenton House remains.
Early on, the Government designated the Golden Shoe area, which included Shenton Way and Raffles Place, as a development area.
Tenanted pre-war properties were freed from rent control, recounts Knight Frank chairman Tan Tiong Cheng.
Buildings that soon sprung up included OCBC Building, OUB Centre (now One Raffles Place), Ocean Building (now Ocean Financial Centre), The Arcade and Clifford Centre.
Shenton Way and Robinson Road formed the nucleus of the Central Business District in the 1970s, but gave up this title to Raffles Place by the mid-1980s when OUB Building, then Singapore's tallest office building, was launched, Mr Tan says.
"The Raffles Place MRT station was opened in 1987, and when that happened the gravitational pull was again towards Raffles Place.
"But Shenton Way had its importance too because DBS Bank was there and a lot of other financial institutions were there, such as Citibank at Robina House."
Today, however, the heart of the CBD is in Marina Bay, Mr Tan says.
The latest phase of the CBD
IN 1996, then Minister for National Development Lim Hng Kiang said the Government would focus on building up Marina Bay into Singapore's new downtown - to be an integrated working, living and recreational area.
Marina Bay is a 360ha plot created from reclaiming land off the seafront at Collyer Quay. Within this, about 80ha was designated an extension of "traditional" CBD sites Raffles Place, Shenton Way and Tanjong Pagar, already measuring 82ha.
As a result, the CBD has almost doubled in size. The amount of office space in this enlarged CBD is expected to more than double to 52 million sq ft when Marina Bay's development potential is fully realised, property consultancy CBRE said.
Today, there are more than 5.5 million sq ft of Grade A office space in the buildings there, including Asia Square and the three towers of Marina Bay Financial Centre (MBFC).
About 65 per cent of the space at these buildings is taken up by financial firms such as DBS Bank, Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank.
Playing in the CBD
ASIDE from swankier office space, the addition of Gardens by the Bay, Marina Bay Sands and the Marina Bay Cruise Centre has added a dash of leisure and fun.
Joggers, once a rare breed in the CBD, are now a common sight, wending their way across Collyer Quay and Marina Boulevard.
The Lawn at Marina Bay, along Marina Boulevard, is a large patch of green where people are often seen exercising in small groups after 5pm.
For those who prefer knocking back a drink or two after work, a crop of new eateries, bars and pubs that open late into the night now liven up the whole area.
Harry's Bar and the Boulevard Bayfront restaurant-bar at MBFC's Ground Plaza are the hang-outs among professionals who work in the three towers, as is brewery and restaurant LeVel 33 at Tower 1.
Mr Tony Padgett, head of corporate real estate services at Barclays, says the whole area is usually buzzing until about 10pm. On Friday nights, the crowd stays later, until 11pm or midnight.
Mr Jai Ganesh, a senior manager at an international bank, says this transformation has made Singapore as lively and vibrant as Hong Kong.
"It's quite different now in the new CBD and that has really bumped up the cool factor. There's more life to it now," says the Singaporean, who moved to Hong Kong two years ago but comes back regularly.
"In terms of shopping, food, both are top-notch. Nightlife and entertainment are pretty much the same. Both are just as crowded and lively."
Living in the CBD
WHILE some 200,000 professionals work in the CBD in the day, as many as 17,000 people now call it home.
Since 2007, the stock of residential apartments has doubled, and there are now between 3,000 and 3,500 units in the area, including those at Icon in Tanjong Pagar, with CBRE expecting a further 3,400 homes to be built from now to 2018.
"We are halfway from the end point of the CBD's development," says Knight Frank's Mr Tan. "What has been developed so far can satisfy our needs for the next five years or so but beyond that, the CBD can expand further, either east or west."
[email protected]