Singapore Converts Shophouses Into Hotels
<B> Singapore Converts Shophouses Into Hotels</B>
By Judy Jacobs
For more than a decade Singapore has been on a mission to restore its aging ethnic neighborhoods and save scores of buildings that had been bound for the wrecking ball. Many of these buildings have been converted into hotels, giving business travelers a chance for an interesting experience and a wider choice of accommodation options than ever before.
While some of these hotels are located in rows of converted shophouses in parts of the city like Tanjong Pagar and Little India, others have taken historic buildings and incorporated them into new construction.
The most recent, the Hotel Rendezvous, opened last fall on Bras Basah Road in the heart of the city's cultural district. The hotel incorporates a row of shophouses that once housed, among other things, a very popular local establishment known as Rendezvous Restaurant. Its location and facilities make Hotel Rendezvous primarily a business hotel.
"We're targeting 70 percent corporate business and have facilities to cater to that market. Each of our 300 rooms has dual telephone lines and voice mail, for example," said Kellvin Ong, director of sales for the four-star property.
Ong expects meetings and incentives to be about 20 percent of the property's business mix. The hotel will have a total of 6,000 square feet of meeting space in six meeting rooms which will accommodate between 25 and 250 attendees theater style. Three of these meeting rooms have yet to be completed. They will open in June on the third floor of the row of historic shophouses that forms the front of the hotel.
The Grand Plaza Parkroyal, another downtown hotel that incorporates a row of shophouses into its design, carries the historic theme into the hotel itself. The long pointed roof of the lobby, which is lined by stucco arches, mimics the shophouse architectural style. The design of the hotel and integration of the shophouses into the complex was so well done that the project received one of six Architectural Heritage Awards presented by Singapore's Urban Redevelopment Authority last year.
The 338-room hotel, part of Parkroyal Hotels & Resorts, includes Orchid Club Floors with in-room fax machines. Its Conference Confidence program team members work with meeting planners to coordinate events, and a ballroom is available that can accommodate up to 310 attendees for banquets.
Meanwhile, several developers have been inspired by the success of The Duxton, an upscale boutique hotel that opened early this decade in a row of traditional shophouses in an area near Chinatown known as Tanjong Pagar. One of those inspired, Royal Peacock Hotels, opened the 80-room Royal Peacock in 1995 in a shophouse setting just a few blocks away. The rooms in this hotel, although small, have a very traditional feel with velvet curtains and shophouse windows.
The Royal Peacock has been such a success that the company has taken over the old Inn of the Sixth Happiness in the same neighborhood and closed it down for refurbishment. It will reopen next year. In addition to the existing 62 shophouse rooms, the company will add a new wing, which will bring the recreated hotel up to a total of 120 rooms.
In Little India, another ethnic neighborhood across town, the Albert Court Hotel added a meeting room accommodating up to 40 attendees last year to cater to the business travelers that make up about 35 percent of its market.
Although a handful of guestrooms are located in the row of old shophouses that make up the lobby and public areas, most of the 136 rooms are in a building constructed in 1994. One of the streets alongside the shophouses has been blocked off to make a cobblestone court, which is lined with restaurants and from which the hotel receives its name.