The former Park Mall on 9 Penang Road was a furniture mall that was demolished to make way for a new mixed-use development that will accommodate 15,000 square feet of retail space and house the new UBS Singapore HQ on 8 floors of office space.
Park Mall was a forgotten building despite its prime location opposite Dhoby Ghaut Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station and the bustling Plaza Singapura.
Opened in 1971 as Supreme House, it was one of the earliest shopping centres on Penang Road, and was initially a popular spot for bargain hunters, as it boasted department store Metro as its anchor tenant.
It was renamed Park Mall in 1992 after being refurbished and marketed as a fashion hub. That didn’t last long though. Park Mall was given another facelift and repositioned as a furniture mall for its reopening in 1995.
But the mall fell silent again in Sept 2016, when it shut down for another redevelopment – this time the building was entirely torn down and rebuilt into a spanking new 10-storey tower, designed to be energy efficient.
In contrast to the brutalist design of the former building, the new design consists of regular repetitive rectilinear geometrical elements, giving the structure a sleek contemporary look.
In 2019, UBS Singapore was announced as the sole tenant of the new building, taking over all 352,000 square feet of its lettable office space. The high-tech office will have an entry access system powered by face-recognition technology. The new building is said to be completed by 2020.
But true to its roots as a haven for shoppers, the new 9 Penang Road will also have 15,000 sq ft of retail space – about the size of an Olympic swimming pool.
In line with the Land Transport Authority and Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Walking and Cycling Plan, the building will also have cycle paths around it, along with bicycle parking facilities and shower rooms.
Buildings and sites featured on Roots.SG are part of our efforts to raise awareness of our heritage; a listing on Roots.SG does not imply any form of preservation or conservation status, unless it is mentioned in the article. The information in this article is valid as of December 2019 and is not intended to be an exhaustive history of the site/building.
