MORE than 260 shopkeepers islandwide have been offered the chance to move out under a programme that helps struggling neighbourhood businesses quit.
The Housing Board announced yesterday that these shop tenants, located in places like Beach Road, Eunos and Toa Payoh, will have up to Jan 4 to make the decision. If more than half in the same block choose to quit, the shops there will be cleared.
The scheme was introduced last year, at a time when neighbourhood shopkeepers were facing increasing pressure from oversupply as well as competition from town centres.
It offers struggling shop tenants a chance to retire from their business with an ex-gratia payment of $60,000, if they meet certain criteria.
If an area is cleared, the minority of shopkeepers who choose to continue their business will be given $10,000 to help them relocate to a new spot.
If the tenants choose to stay put, the Government will help them upgrade their operations.
The HDB, which manages about 6,300 rental shops, made the same offer to 193 tenants last year under a pilot exercise. About half of those tenants have since chosen to close shop.
The board plans to convert the vacated shops into void deck space, or for other communal uses.
Shopkeepers can nominate themselves if they want to be offered this aid. The HDB will look at whether there are enough shops in an area to serve nearby residents before making the offer.
At Toa Payoh Lorong 1 yesterday, in an ageing area just a stone's throw from the thriving office and retail complex HDB Hub, piano shop manager Patrick Choo was glad when he found out that he had been offered the bailout.
Mr Choo, 43, who runs the piano shop with his father, Mr Choo Kim San, 69, had written to the authorities with other shopkeepers last year to get into the programme.
Pointing to the driveway by his shop as well as the surrounding businesses, he told The Straits Times: 'It's so quiet here. Not even stray dogs come.'
Mr Choo said his business took a nosedive after the Sars crisis in 2003 and has never quite recovered. In fact, his current takings are less than half of that two years ago .
He said: 'We're just happy not to make a heavy loss.'
Just a few doors down the corridor, the situation looked equally grim for a coffee shop run by 49-year-old Su Ah Meng.
It has just one food stall selling noodles and gets a mere 30 customers a day. It used to have five other food stalls but the stallholders moved out because business was poor.
Mr Su cannot wait to get out. 'Business is just dying slowly here,' he said.
tanhy@sph.com.sg
