Jack Investment Raises Iluma Project Cost

Source : The Business Times, November 22, 2007

Entertainment, retail mall bill to soar to $160m from $100m

JACK Investment, which won the tender to build a retail and entertainment mall on a site opposite Bugis Junction in 2005, has revised its projected total investment cost from $100 million to $160 million.

Iluma: Will have high-tech features like a light and media facade and a 27,000 sq ft column-free space on the rooftop dedicated to theme restaurants

Project director Lim Swee Teck said that Jack Investment intends to 'ensure that the final finished product will be of an iconic stature'. The development is now called Iluma.

Mr Lim said that the mall, designed by award-winning architectural firm WOHA, will have high-tech features like a light and media facade and a 27,000 sq ft column-free space on the rooftop dedicated to theme restaurants and concept dining.

Other features will include exhibition and promotional spaces within the mall, as well as a flexible performing space which can seat up to 400 people.

Also confirmed is the vital link-bridge across Victoria Street to Bugis Junction.

Jack Investment also owns Leisure Park Kallang, West Coast Recreation Centre, Woodlands Point and 600@Toa Payoh.

One of the main entertainment attractions at Iluma will be a cineplex, with a capacity for 1,400 seats, which will be run by Jack Investment. This will be a new business for company that will begin with the recently announced six-hall, 830-seat cineplex next to Leisure Park Kallang.

Iluma will be 10 storeys high. Up to 60 per cent of the gross floor area will be dedicated to entertainment uses. There will be 191,580 sq ft of net lettable area with a total of 150 retail units.

Iluma's marketing consultant Knight Frank said that the primary target market will be fashion conscious 20 to 30-year-olds.

Knight Frank head of retail Sherene Sng added that entertainment attractions could also include brand-name dance clubs similar to the Ministry of Sound.

She said that rents at Iluma can be expected to range between $10 and $30 per square foot (psf). Currently, top rents at neighbouring Bugis Junction are said to be in the region of $40 psf.

The mall is currently under construction and is expected to be completed in the final quarter of next year.