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IT IS almost lunch time, but the vast office complex in Bukit Merah Central is a relative oasis of calm. The bustle typical of office buildings is missing.

Across a quiet courtyard, glass panels fronting empty office units face each other. Two cleaners lingering for a chat are the only signs of human activity.

It is just another day at Connection One, formerly known as the HDB Centre. For more than 14 years up to 2002, it was the headquarters of the Housing Board, a place where 4,600 people worked and flat buyers, sellers and housing agents converged.

Ms P.K. Goh, an administrative executive who used to work for the HDB and is now with its spun-off building consultancy Surbana Corporation, recalls what it was like before the statutory board moved to the HDB Hub in Toa Payoh Central.

Pointing to the empty offices on the first floor, she said: 'They had sales counters there. You could see HDB staff rushing around serving buyers and sellers. Now, it's not so vibrant.'

Back in 2002, the HDB drew flak for leaving this 764,000-sq-ft complex for its new Toa Payoh home. Surbana, previously called HDB Corporation, moved back in 2003 and now takes up 215,000 sq ft, almost an entire block out of the five there.

Over the years, an eclectic mix of tenants - from a church group to a cultural association, a dance school, private schools, a betting centre and building firms - have moved in too.

The HDB says that all 140,000 sq ft of retail space in the complex has been taken up. But about 237,000 sq ft of office space - or over a third of such space available - sits empty.

This means its vacancy rate is higher than that of most Singapore office buildings, where only 10 to 15 per cent of the space is unused, said the managing director of property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield, Mr Donald Han.

Bukit Merah Complex tenants say its lower rent, good landscaping, ample carpark space and quiet are plus points.

Take Mrs Shireen Yan, 47, who co-owns a four-month-old dance studio, Dance Castle, which occupies about 3,000 sq ft of space that used to be part of the HDB clubhouse.

She and her husband Alan Yan have about 100 students aged from three to 60, coming in for classes in ballet, hip hop, jazz, ballroom, waltz, latin and rock and roll.

'The first time I saw the place, I fell in love with it. I like the privacy - it's not like a shopping mall. People won't feel like they are being watched.'

Fellow tenant Tham Kum Fong, 51, who works at Xiyao Culture Association there, likes the place for the landscaping done in the foyers and gardens.

Another perk that tenants say they enjoy is that their customers do not have to pay road tolls to reach their shops because the complex sits outside the Central Business District.

The vacant office space has made some tenants, like the Covenant Evangelical Free Church, work harder to get to know their neighbours better.

When its staff moved in last October, they went on an 'Amazing Race-like' exercise, zipping around the building in under two hours to introduce themselves to other tenants.

The flip side, of course, is that the privacy and quiet come at a price: Office space that sits empty, and more than 100 shopkeepers in the nearby Bukit Merah Town Centre who are longing for the busy days of old.

For now, at least, that is a remote possibility.

Property experts say the HDB has an uphill task trying to fill the complex because it is not linked to an MRT station, though shuttle buses run to the nearest station at Tiong Bahru.

Knight Frank consultancy director Agnes Tay added that it is a challenge for the HDB to get good rent for Connection One as potential tenants will tend to compare it with cheaper high-tech industrial spaces nearby.

The HDB says the rent at Bukit Merah is now $2.50 psf to $3 psf per month. This is much lower than the average of $6 psf per month for prime, high-end office space in Raffles Place.

To pull in more tenants, the board improved the lighting, walkways, lift lobbies, toilets and landscaping about a year ago.

The shopkeepers and hawkers nearby hope the new fittings do their job.

Many of them bought their stalls and shops around the property peak of 1996, expecting a constant stream of customers from the HDB headquarters.

Some say business was halved when the HDB moved out, and has not bounced back since. To make things worse, the Bukit Merah Central swimming pool closed a year after the HDB left, taking away even more would-be patrons.

Shopkeepers and hawkers interviewed say they now rely on business from their regulars and those who work in Connection One and the nearby industrial estates. On public holidays, things get even worse.

Ms Helen Tay, 50, who runs a ngoh hiang stall at the hawker centre, almost had her stall repossessed by her bank last year, after she fell behind on the instalment payments for her $170,000 stall for eight months.

She said: 'It's hard to survive. The hawkers' association put TV sets in the hawker centre, but we end up watching them ourselves.'

Mr Tan Heng Chai, 56, who runs clothing shop Chylea Fashion, is still repaying the loan he took to pay for his roughly $1 million, 800-sq-ft shop in 1996. He said: 'The mood among retailers here is very despondent. We are earning enough just to pay the bank.'

Various parties have tried to liven up the town centre to make up for HDB's departure: The Tanjong Pagar Town Council put $2 million into upgrading the concourse, pedestrian malls and signages in the town centre in 2002; the Bukit Merah Central Merchants' and Hawkers' Association spent $60,000 on TV sets and more tables at the hawker centre last year, and also introduced line dancing and open-air karaoke sessions.

Association chairman Ko Ngak Phweng, 48, told The Straits Times in Mandarin: 'If the HDB hadn't moved away, we wouldn't have had to organise all these activities. We get by, but business is not flourishing.'

The area's newly-elected Member of Parliament Sam Tan said the Bukit Merah Central hawker centre will soon be overhauled, and, with repainting and lift upgrading for the office spaces also in the works, he hopes the area's appeal would improve.

Meanwhile, private education set-up TheLearningHub, which has taken over 7,000 sq ft of space at the former HDB Centre, is looking to expand.

The man behind the project, Mr Michael Low, 49, said: 'We think the area can develop as a secondary private-school hub to support the Buona Vista area.'

Dance Castle's Mrs Yan is also optimistic about Connection One: 'In time, if people know it's coming alive again, they might come and see for themselves.'

tanhy@sph.com.sg