Choa Chu Kang First Station Outside City To Get Mini Mall

Source : The Straits Times, Jan 29, 2008

CATCH an MRT train, LRT train, a bus or a good deal at Choa Chu Kang MRT station.

A mini mall has come up there, the first in a station outside the city centre.

Choa Chu Kang Xchange, officially opened by South West District mayor Amy Khor yesterday, takes after the shopping facilities found in the downtown Raffles Place and Dhoby Ghaut stations.

SMRT's chief executive Saw Phaik Hwa said Choa Chu Kang station was picked as a location for the mall because of its high passenger traffic.

She said: 'This is also the junction of the LRT, MRT and a bus exchange, so it's unique in that sense.'

The mall sits on a field that used to separate the bus interchange from the MRT station.

It houses 42 shops with offerings ranging from food and beverages to clothing and hairdressing services within its 1,000 sq m premises.

Two dozen shops opened from the middle of last year, with the rest following at the end of last year and this month.

Housewife Ee Lai Fong, 40, is enjoying new-found convenience: 'It's easy for me to pick up food on my way home, especially when I'm busy with my two children.'

SMRT said that the rentals at these shops are similar to those at the Dhoby Ghaut and Raffles Place Xchange.

Last year, it had to deal with complaints from its tenants at the Dhoby Ghaut Xchange about poor shopper traffic.

Many tenants said they were behind on their rentals because they could only make up to $200 a day - not enough to cover the $2,000 to $7,500 monthly rental.

Ms Saw, referring to the incident, said the mix of tenants may not have been ideal and that certain tenants' products or services did not fit in with the rest.

She added that Dhoby Ghaut Xchange has since turned around and is now more than 90 per cent occupied, with business growing by the month.

'Why do exchanges work? Because they are nodes of thousands and thousands of people everyday...It is because we have the customers - that is why we build exchanges.'

SMRT, which made about $20 million in rental five years ago, expects to earn more than twice that this year.

Two other stations - Tanjong Pagar and Boon Lay - are slated to have mini malls by the middle of the year.