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MARINA Square is being relaunched after a $100 million, 24-month, renovation, and mall owner Marina Centre Holdings (MCH) is already seeing rewards.

Upgraded Marina Square: 70% of the tenants in the mall are new ones

MCH senior manager (advertising and promotions) Tan Swee Lin estimates that about 2 million shoppers a month visit Marina Square, up from around 1.5-1.8 million prior to renovation. 'And we haven't even launched yet,' he adds.

Rents have also increased. Although Mr Tan did not say what the level of rents were prior to the work, he says that the current average rental is about $8-$10 psf per month. And the new Marina Square is almost 100 per cent fully committed in terms of leasing. 'We are very much in line with Orchard Road rents,' he added.

MCH is majority owned by Singapore Land. Other shareholders include OUE, UOL, Temasek and UOB.

There would certainly have been pressure to upgrade its premises, not least because of new developments like Vivocity and the new integrated resorts coming up. Yet Mr Tan says, 'there is always competition'.

What has changed considerably is the retail mix. Today, 70 per cent of the tenants in the mall are new ones. And this is in addition to the fact that about 70 more shop units have been added since the renovation.

MCH's property consultant Danny Yeo, executive director of Knight Frank, says Marina Square is now positioned at the middle and mid-upper tier of shopper. 'A lot of focus has been put on the young urbanites,' he says. Up to 40 per cent of the retail mix includes fashion and lifestyle shops including crowd pullers like fashion brands like Zara and Mango.

Food outlets have also increased by about 5 per cent and by creating several open-air dining options, previously dead stretches of shop fronts like the one facing Pan Pacific hotel have been turned into bustling hotspots, with the help of new fast-food joints like Carl's Jr, surprising even the management.

Some shoppers will notice the lack of a traditional department store. The Metro store is gone and with it goes the old concept of the mall with four anchor tenants. Now, Marina Square has eight 'zones' including casual fashion, youth, kids and entertainment.

'A department store takes up about 30,000 sq m, so for a mall, if the tenant is not that strong, it's not necessary any more to have a department store,' Mr Yeo said.

DP Architects are responsible for the revamp and its senior associate Foo Chai Yee explains that one of the priorities was to 'externalise' the activities, making the activities more 'transparent'.

Mr Foo says no extra floor area was gained for the $100 million spent, as the maximum gross floor area had already been attained.

At MCH, Mr Tan is, however, confident that this money will be recouped quickly. 'We have about 700,000 sq ft of lettable area. Based on the rent we can charge, it should not take long,' he said.