The Hotel Phoenix (right) was part of the $20 million Specialists’ Centre complex (left) that straddled Somerset Road and the Orchard Road tourist and shopping belt. Owned by the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), then headed by chairman Tan Sri Tan Chin Tuan, the complex was opened for business in 1972. The 400-room hotel was marketed as a luxury property that offered guests first-class treatment at affordable room rates. To achieve this goal, the hotel’s management focused on providing comfortable rather than ostentatious surroundings and skipped building extra facilities such as ballrooms and convention halls. Instead, the money saved was spent on providing useful amenities such as safe deposit boxes, a pneumatic tube delivery system for transmitting bills, and computerised lifts that stopped at different floors when not in use so as to minimise waiting time. The hotel’s Phoenix Garden Cafe later gained a reputation for its roti prata (an Indian bread) and other local fare. Besides the hotel, the complex also housed shops, restaurants, pharmacies and a specialist medical centre that offered a whole range of medical services. In August 2007, Hotel Phoenix closed its doors after 35 years in operation. In July 2010, OCBC announced plans to redevelop the site of the hotel and the Specialists’ Shopping Centre into a new hotel-cum-shopping complex.
