COME Christmas 2008, residents in the Tampines area will have a new mall to visit.
The fund which bought the two sites currently housing DBS Tampines Centre and the adjacent Pavilion will spend a total of $450 million to build a swanky mall there.
The price includes the nearly $289 million that Asian Retail Mall Fund II, which is managed by Pramerica Real Estate Investors, paid for the sites earlier this year.
The mall's manager, AsiaMalls Management, hopes it will be a new architectural landmark for Tampines, an area already served by two busy malls, Tampines Mall and Century Square.
The yet unnamed new mall, which will have five storeys and one basement level, has a net lettable area of 270,000 sq ft and 240 car park lots.
This makes it smaller than Tampines Mall, which has a net lettable area of nearly 322,000 sq ft, but bigger than Century Square, with a net lettable area of 210,000 sq ft.
The proposed mall will have specialty anchor stores of about 15,000 sq ft to 20,000 sq ft, said AsiaMalls assistant general manager Stephanie Ho.
About 120 shops will be built, including a gourmet supermarket, a fitness centre, a cluster of double- storey food and beverage stores and retail shops.
To differentiate the new mall's food court from those at the other two malls, up to 15,000 sq ft on the third floor will be set aside for an upscale food court featuring open kitchens.
As the mall is positioned around the 'young, savvy and lover of all new things' theme, shops will have to come up with new products or services every five to six months, said Ms Ho.
'This new site and Tampines Mall are very well-located as they are next to the MRT station. If the new mall is well-positioned, it could fetch rentals of $11 to $13 per sq ft,' said Mr Danny Yeo of property consultancy Knight Frank.
The heat could then be on Century Square as it is smaller and located a bit farther from the MRT station than the two malls, he said.
Century Square is also managed by AsiaMalls and owned by Asian Retail Mall Fund.
Existing tenants of DBS Tampines Centre and Pavillion will move out by end-November because construction is due to start in the first quarter of next year.
