Tenants await outcome of The Centrepoint’s partial collective sale effort

The rear block of the Orchard Road mall was put up for collective sale at $418 million on Jan 7. Tenants await outcome of The Centrepoint’s partial collective sale effort Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inboxGrace LeongSummarySummaryThe Centrepoint's rear block and Cuppage Terrace are up for collective sale, attracting strong interest. Frasers Property is a frontrunner for the rear block.Long-term tenants face uncertainty due to sale efforts and shifting retail trends, while The Centrepoint introduces new brands and tourist programmes.Frasers is well-positioned to tap URA's SDI scheme, which aims to get owners of commercial buildings to come up with a joint redevelopment proposal with their neighbours to transform a street or precinct.AI generatedPublished Feb 19, 2026, 05:00 AMUpdated Feb 19, 2026, 05:00 AMSINGAPORE - The first 30 years of business for Optics Premier, located in the rear block of The Centrepoint, were a boom time, as it rode the foot traffic generated by the Orchard Road mall’s then anchor tenants such as Robinsons, the department store.“Robinsons’ sales would draw crowds. Every day, we had five to six tourists, regular customers and walk-ins to our shop,” said Ms Lim Siew Lian, a partner in the eyecare retailer, which opened in 1983.But things gradually slowed, some tenants observed, when Robinsons moved out in 2014 after 31 years, Marks & Spencer closed its Centrepoint outlet in 2015 and Metro closed its flagship store in 2019, after five years as its anchor tenant. The growth of suburban malls and newer Orchard Road malls also reduced the allure of older shopping centres, said Ms Lim, who joined the shop as an intern in 1996 and became a partner in 2018.The 43-year-old mall underwent a $50 million overhaul in 2015 to refresh its tenant mix and layout but faced pressure from the rise of e-commerce, competition from suburban malls, and then the Covid-19 pandemic. Newer tenants like Trapped, one of the largest escape rooms in Singapore, attract corporate customers, but “not the type of clientele who would come to our shop”, said Ms Lim.However, there may be a third act yet for Optics Premier and other tenants, who are watching closely a collective sale of The Centrepoint’s rear block, comprising 66 strata retail units and 66 residential apartments.Buzz about the redevelopment prospects of one of Orchard Road’s most prime retail areas has been growing with the recent sale efforts for the leasehold block and Cuppage Terrace, a strip of 17 conservation shophouses directly facing it.“We are keen to carry on around this area, and will explore all options,” said Ms Lim, who noted that it was still too early to say.Developed by Frasers Centrepoint (now Frasers Property), The Centrepoint’s rear block was put up for collective sale at $418 million on Jan 7. Two weeks later, Raj Kumar’s Royal Holdings launched an expression of interest (EOI) exercise for Cuppage Terrace valued at $250 million. Marketing agent CBRE did not respond when asked about the results of Cuppage Terrace’s EOI exercise, which closed on Feb 12. But Mr Clemence Lee, CBRE’s executive director of capital markets (Singapore), told The Straits Times on Jan 30 that it received “strong interest with over 50 inquiries to date from local and foreign developers, end-users, boutique real estate funds, ultra-high-net-worth family offices and corporates”.“Given a surge in investor demand for retail assets in recent months, the owner has received multiple unsolicited approaches. In the light of this, it decided to formally launch the property for sale,” he said.The tender for the leasehold portion of The Centrepoint closes on Feb 26. The remaining 151 retail units in a freehold front block, the majority of which are owned by Frasers, are not part of the tender.Frasers, which also owns 52 per cent of the units in the rear block by strata area, is seen as the front runner to buy the rear block.It is also well positioned to draw on the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Strategic Development Incentive (SDI) scheme, which encourages owners of commercial buildings to come up with a joint redevelopment proposal with their neighbours to transform the street or precinct.In order to apply for the SDI, Frasers would need to amalgamate two contiguous sites for redevelopment, Professor Sing Tien Foo, provost’s chair professor of real estate at NUS Business School, said.If Frasers acquires the rear block, it will have several redevelopment options, including combining both front and rear blocks, or adding 51 Cuppage Road, a nearby 10-storey office building it owns, to create a larger plot for redevelopment into an integrated mixed-use project, Prof Sing explained.“The Centrepoint faces competition from newer developments such as 313@Somerset and Orchard Gateway,” he added.On why Cuppage Terrace was put up for sale within weeks of The Centrepoint’s collective sale effort, he noted that the timing of both sale efforts is “strategic”.If the buyer of the rear block of The Centrepoint also buys Cuppage Terrace, both sites