Situated at Nassim Road on the outskirts of the Orchard Road shopping and tourist belt, the Century Park Sheraton Hotel was opened in January 1979 by then Senior Minister of State (National Development) S. Dhanabalan. The 465-room property was initially developed as the Tanglin Hotel and then as the Connaught Hotel by Peoples Realty Pte Ltd, a sister company of the Goodwood Group. Due to funding issues, the half-completed property was eventually sold to All Nippon Airways Enterprise (ANAE), a subsidiary of the Japanese airline All Nippon Airways (ANA), for $59 million in November 1977. The following year, the new owners signed an agreement to run the hotel as part of the international Sheraton hotel franchise. The property was renamed ANA Hotel in 1990 following a $20 million renovation and the termination of the franchise agreement with Sheraton. The renaming exercise coincided with ANA’s decision to extend its airline services to Singapore the following year. The hotel was closed down in March 2004 by current owners CapitaLand for redevelopment into a condominium housing project known as Nassim Park Residences. News of the hotel’s closure was greeted with despair by many former patrons of its facilities such as the Japanese restaurant Unaki, the Cafe-in-the-Park coffee house, and the Europa Ridley’s nightclub.
