What's up at the bay

Marina Bay, Singapore's crown jewel, is slowly but surely taking shape
Tan Dawn Wei, Straits Times 15 Nov 09;

In 1992, there were plans for a landmark twin tower - Singapore's tallest office buildings - just at the water's edge in Marina Bay, soaring to as high as 80 storeys.

A model of the towers was even on exhibition in 1996 when plans were unveiled for the area.

Those monumental structures never quite materialised on the fringe of the waterfront. And it was probably a good thing: Imagine how people in the other buildings behind the two mammoth structures would have felt.

The new plan by Singapore's urban planners was much more equitable: Let everyone have a piece of the bay views.

It was a rethinking that meant throwing out the original blueprint of densely developed buildings along the waterfront, and creating districts rather than block after block of commercial buildings.

And so it was mandated that waterfront developments should not rise above 50m in height, while buildings will step up gradually, much like how seats are arranged in a theatre.

When the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) was tasked with the job of planning for Singapore's future land needs, it was not just about dumping soil into the sea to create more land.

The bigger challenge was sculpting the skyline, making sure it looks picture perfect on every postcard and tourist snapshot.

Meticulous planning

Marina Bay is, undoubtedly, Singapore's crown jewel - arguably the most ambitious and longest-in- planning development the Government has ever undertaken.

An enormous amount of contemplation, engineering and investments has been poured into this prime plot, which the public had a glimpse of when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong shared a fly-by video of it at his National Day Rally speech this year. In his rally speech in 2005, he gave a preview of the new Marina Bay, which was still at the drawing stage.

The Government has already pumped in $7.5 billion in infrastructure cost to make the land ready for investors, while total private investments tally up to $20.2 billion to date.

Around 24ha of land within Marina Bay has already been sold for development, including sites for One Raffles Quay, the Marina Bay Financial Centre and Marina Bay Sands.

It is where everyone will congregate and where everything will happen: the annual night-time Formula One race, New Year's Eve countdown, National Day Parade, big-scale conventions, an upcoming casino, the new financial centre and the city's highest luxury residential blocks.

With the bay's most iconic development - integrated resort Marina Bay Sands - about to open for business in the first quarter of next year, anticipation and excitement are at an all-time high.

But it has taken more than 30 years to get to this point. At the beginning, there was nothing - not even land.

Land reclamation exercises from 1969 to 1992 produced about 370ha in the bay area and 80ha in Marina Centre, in anticipation of the nation's economic growth and, with it, the extension of the Central Business District (CBD).

Unlike, say, Canary Wharf in East London, which was developed as a huge office and shopping precinct that is separate from the city's traditional financial centre in The Square Mile, Marina Bay's advantage is in its integration with the current financial district.

'It is not the old downtown and the new downtown. Marina Bay is planned as a seamless extension of the existing CBD,' said Mr Andrew Fassam, deputy director of URA's urban planning department.

All new roads branch off from existing road networks at Raffles Place and Shenton Way.

Singapore's urban planners also made a conscious decision to frame the bay, and ensure that the area would have a mix of uses where there would be life after dark - 24/7, in fact.

Another design principle was that it had to be a place for everyone and 'not just the affluent', said Mr Fassam.

So the Government decided to put in public-pleasing facilities: A 3.4km promenade linking the major public attractions like the Merlion, Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay and the upcoming ArtScience Museum; underground links lined with shops; and 100ha of land set aside for three waterfront gardens.

But it also decided to zone the area as a 'white site', which means that developers have the flexibility to build according to their vision.

When property tycoon Kwek Leng Beng bid for a plum piece of land fronting the bay, he had initially wanted the project to be half-commercial.

He later changed his mind and developed The Sail instead, two residential blocks towering at 63 and 70 storeys which saw no lack of takers, even though property analysts were initially sceptical and felt only that an office building would work on that site.

The URA also allotted larger parcels in the area so developers could build bigger buildings based on the needs of financial institutions, such as trading floors.

An upcoming development, Asia Square, is hoping to plug the gap for Grade A office space in town, especially those that have column-free floor plates.

When completed, the two towers will add 2 million sq ft of office space to the mix.

'What clinched the deal for us was the availability of a huge parcel of land that could be developed into premium grade A+ office space, sitting in a prime location that is well-connected to the business hub,' said project director Jeremy Choy.

The development's parent company, Macquarie Global Property Advisors, bid more than $2 billion for the land.

The integrated development also houses a 280-room five-star hotel, and has space for retail and food and beverage, in addition to office space.

Mr Choy added that one of the critical deciding factors was the long-term plan for the area.

That the area was supported by the latest advances in infrastructure, like access to a district cooling system, also helped seal the deal.

Buildings in the area are served by common services tunnels which carry sewerage, water and telecommunication pipes typically buried under the road. These tunnels can be accessed without digging up the roads.

This is the first such network in South-east Asia.

The district also has its own cooling system, which makes for better economies of scale. In the pipeline is a centralised pneumatic refuse collection system that sucks all rubbish to one central location and saves the garbage truck from having to go door to door.

Even the greening of the area has been planned to a T. Planting plans include green, pink and yellow themes for different districts within the area. Coupled with this is a night lighting plan, which was originally designed for the Civic District but has since been extended to the CBD and Marina Bay.

Under the plan, buildings are required to be lit as part of the sale conditions, while the Government gives a cash grant to existing buildings around the bay to light up.

'We can put good hardware in place, but that doesn't mean that the place will be successful. The right software is important to make it come alive,' acknowledged Mr Fassam.

So it went and wooed private investors by going to overseas fairs, some of which have translated into successful land sales.

Good long-term prospects

Likewise, the clincher for Marina Bay Sands has been the long-term prospects of the area and the growing exhibition and convention business, said its chief executive officer and president Thomas Arasi.

'The company's investment and commitment were based on the fact that Singapore has breadth and depth across all the major travel segments to make the integrated resort thrive. Few global gateways offer everything that Singapore can offer tourists from around the region and around the world,' he said.

Over the years, the plan has been constantly refined - from when it first appeared as a concept plan in the 1970s, to 2000, when the first site was launched - which has since been developed into what is now One Raffles Quay.

At one point, Marina South was thrown up as a possible site for the Singapore Management University campus, but it was decided that the university should go back to where the schools traditionally were, in the Bras Basah area.

Marina South's interim tenants have since all gone, and infrastructure works are taking place there now. That land had been sold on short-term leases of between 21 and 24 years after it was reclaimed. Those leases expired last year.

But the fervent development of Marina Bay as the new financial hub has also thrown up some concerns, among which is whether there will be an oversupply of office space, especially since the economy has been hit so badly.

The authorities do not seem worried.

Some office leasing agents have reportedly seen an increased number of leasing enquiries over the last quarter as rental rates became more competitive, and lease packages offered by landlords became more attractive, said URA.

And this could spur demand and help absorb some of the office space that is coming on stream.

Some developers have also continued to delay the completion of their projects, while a few others are considering converting existing office buildings in the CBD to residential use.

This would help regulate the supply of office space, they reason.

There has been quite a bit of international interest, said Mr Fassam, with investors asking when the next parcel will be released for sale.

But the authorities are in no hurry to open the floodgates and let buildings sprout.

After all, it has taken three decades for Marina Bay's transformation, and it could well take another three decades to fill up the rest of the land.