SINGAPORE – A new integrated development that includes a community club and sports facilities is set to be built in Siglap South. It is slated for completion in 2028 or 2029.
Tender documents published by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) on April 12 said that the development will be located in Upper East Coast Road, on a site that currently has an open-air carpark, next to a Shell petrol station.
The existing Siglap South Community Centre – about 500m from the development site – will be demolished after the project is completed. An SLA spokesman told The Sunday Times that the community centre was built in 1960 and its facilities are ageing.
“To better meet the needs of the residents and to provide for new uses, the community centre will be constructed at a new site as a bigger integrated community development,” he said.
The new development will cover an area of about 8,000 sq m – slightly larger than a football field and subject to a detailed survey – and has a floor area of about 12,000 sq m. It will be a 650m walk from Siglap MRT station, which is scheduled to open in 2024.
Based on current plans, the development will be about 30m tall and have four to five storeys. It will also house food and beverage outlets, arts spaces, areas for community and commercial use, and a basement carpark with about 220 spaces. Its sports facilities will be operated by Sport Singapore.
SLA said in the tender documents that the development should meet “future needs and aspirations of a multi-generation crowd and attract crowds to the community club to foster community bonding and interaction”.
It added that facilities should be designed for multi-purpose use, and that space should be optimised to allow for “new spatial experiences and co-programming” that attract visitors throughout the day.
The SLA spokesman said the site was chosen for its proximity to Siglap’s commercial belt, so more residents would be able to access the new community facilities easily.
With Singapore keen to optimise land use, hubs like the upcoming one in Siglap have sprung up in recent years, each integrating public amenities that may have previously been separate, such as libraries and swimming pools.
Developments such as Our Tampines Hub and Kampung Admiralty were completed in 2017, while Chong Pang City and an integrated hub in Jurong East are set for completion in 2027.
Before the Siglap South development’s construction, which is slated to start in November 2025, a replacement open-air carpark will be built on a plot about 130m away at the intersection of Upper East Coast Road and Jalan Sempadan.
The current carpark has 127 spaces for cars and 11 for motorcycles.
Three graves from a cemetery that was located on the site remain today, and it is unclear from tender documents if the carpark’s development will affect them.
According to the heritage resource portal Roots.gov.sg, the graves belong to Tok Lasam, his wife and his commander-in-chief.
In one account about Tok Lasam, he is believed to have been a Sumatran prince who arrived in Singapore with his followers in the early 1800s, before settling near the shoreline that later became known as Kampung Siglap, of which he was made village chief.
The current Siglap South Community Centre at 6 Palm Road has roots in the Siglap Social Centre, which was officially opened in May 1953 on the same site and run by the Department of Social Welfare. A post on heritage blog Remember Singapore said the social centre was among the first community centres to be built in Singapore, and possibly the first to be officially opened, along with one in Serangoon.
The centre was transferred to the People’s Association in 1960, and has over the years undergone renovation and extensions. It was subsequently renamed Siglap South Community Centre in the late 1990s.
Residents have shared views on what they would like to see in the new development, said the SLA spokesman, who added that their feedback will be considered during the planning and design stage.
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Some told ST that they feel the current community centre is underutilised.
Mr Stanley Tan, who has lived in the area for about two years, said the centre has low foot traffic. He is supportive of the integrated development as a standalone community club may not be attractive.
“It’s not just about optimising the use of land, but multiple amenities would give people more than one reason to visit,” said the 48-year-old lawyer, who previously lived in Tampines and visited Our Tampines Hub about twice a week with his family to use facilities such as the library and pool.
Mr Tan said that the authorities will likely need to fine-tune their concept and programming for the new development, which will be in an area surrounded by landed homes and condominiums.
He noted that the development risks being a white elephant if affluent residents with country club memberships see no need to visit it, while others in nearby public housing estates prefer to use community facilities closer to home.
Ms Cheong M. F., a resident in her 50s who has lived in the area for about a decade, said shops will attract residents to the new community club. “Otherwise, people won’t enter and know what’s in it,” said Ms Cheong, who works in human resources, adding that the existing community centre is often quiet.
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