$6m Boost For HDB Shops To Draw Crowds

Source : The Straits Times, Nov 15, 2007

About 1,500 retailers at 14 suburban centres will get help to upgrade common areas and hold promotional events

SUBURBAN shoppers may soon get to relax in a trendy beer garden in Tampines or watch bird-singing competitions in Serangoon North.

These new attractions are not bound for spiffy heartland malls, but humbler HDB estates, where retailers are in line for a $6 million makeover to attract more shoppers in the first exercise of its kind.

About 1,500 small shops at 14 suburban centres - many struggling to compete with more vibrant rivals - will benefit from this facelift under a pilot scheme, the HDB said yesterday.

The areas were selected from 19 applications and unveiled by Minister of State for National Development Grace Fu. They include blocks in Marine Parade, Bedok, Toa Payoh, Serangoon North, Tampines and Changi Village.

Some proposals for improvements include an amphitheatre for Jurong West and a modern glass roof over a Teck Whye pedestrian mall.

This sprucing up is part of the new Revitalisation of Shops (ROS) scheme, first mooted in Parliament in March to help older HDB shops compete with malls.

One estate that has already been transformed with help from the HDB is Sunset Way, which benefited from another HDB programme called the Restructuring Programme for Shops (RPS). This scheme gives payouts to shops that are better off closing down or regrouping.

In Sunset Way, once-struggling businesses selling vegetables, fruit and the like have been replaced by shops and alfresco eateries offering Thai and Japanese cuisine, and even a steakhouse.

As a result, the area has been revitalised and is packing in the crowds.

'When we looked at the performance of the shops in HDB estates, we realised that some of the shops have been affected by either changes in the way that we shop or changes in social demographic factors,' Ms Fu said at a media briefing.

'There is a need to renew and rejuvenate our shop centres.'

Under the new ROS scheme, the HDB and town councils will help foot the bill to upgrade common areas, such as by adding block awnings.

They will subsidise half the cost for shop owners, or up to $10,000 per shop, and the full cost for shop tenants, or up to $20,000 per shop.

The HDB will also help pay for promotional activities to draw crowds to the shops.

For example, in pet-shop hub Serangoon North, retailers have plans for bird-singing competitions and fish exhibitions.

One shop owner, Mr Benjamin Wee, managing director of Petmart in Serangoon North, said: 'If you look at an area like Ang Mo Kio, there are so many shoppers and it's doing so well. We hope to be like that.'

The promotions will take effect within six months to a year, while construction and upgrading will take at least a year. In a year's time, the HDB will review the pilot scheme.

It has also continued its RPS scheme. So far, two batches of tenants, or 219 shops, have been cleared to build void decks or common facilities such as senior citizens' centres. The third and last batch of 74 tenants was selected yesterday, marking the end of the $12.5 million programme.

The HDB will also spend up to $4 million to lower electrical upgrading charges for shops.

'I hope you will appreciate that HDB is really going out of its way,' Ms Fu told reporters. 'If you are looking at HDB as a private-sector commercial space owner, it would not have to do this.'