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Tag: Ngee Ann City

  • Onitsuka Tiger store in Singapore is biggest yet

    Onitsuka Tiger store in Singapore is biggest yet

    Onitsuka Tiger Singapore has opened its largest boutique in Ngee Ann City. As part of its efforts to become recognised as a fashion lifestyle brand beyond its sneaker business, the Japanese footwear firm’s new 165sqm store – the label’s fifth in Singapore – exclusively stocks the label’s Nippon Made collection as well as its usual retail offerings, focused on hand-made shoes following traditional Japanese methods.

    The store also sells Japanese-designed athleisure apparel and accessories in a store space fitted out with plush tiger toys.

    Onitsuka Tiger is owned by Asics.

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  • Diptyque opens its new Singapore store

    Diptyque opens its new Singapore store

    Diptyque Singapore has opened its first store, a 423sqft (39sqm) space at Ngee Ann City.

    Previously, the French firm’s scented candles, perfumes, and face and bodycare range were available online or through smaller retailers and stores like Escentials and Tangs.

    It is only the second Diptyque boutique in Southeast Asia, the first being in Kuala Lumpur. It features brass furnishings and forest-green Indian marble, while its walls are bottle green. This echoes Singapore’s status as a garden city, as every Diptyque store is designed with the locality in mind.

    As the opening in Singapore coincides with the 50th anniversary of the brand’s first fragrance, L’Eau, two new scents have been released, Fleur de Peau and Tempo, both developed by perfumer Olivier Pescheux.

    A feature of the store is a gift-wrapping service.

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  • Louis Vuitton Singapore 20 years anniversary gift

    Louis Vuitton Singapore 20 years anniversary gift

    Louis Vuitton Singapore has given its Orchard Road boutique in Singapore a makeover to celebrate its 20 years at Ngee Ann City.

    The maison’s signature monogram flower pattern has been reinterpreted in shiny copper with a fading effect, with the exterior façade featuring stone, glass and metal – materials that signifies authenticity and tradition.

    Inside the luxurious fittings include cerused oak with gold leaf, natural stone floors, plush furniture by Helene de Saint Lager and Paul Evans, and hand-knotted carpets from Nepal.

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  • New Louis Vuitton perfumes

    New Louis Vuitton perfumes

    Louis Vuitton perfumes are available again, with the French fashion house offering seven choices for its first fragrance launch in 70 years.

    Ingredients for the perfumes have been sourced internationally, including CO2 extractions from jasmine and May roses native to Grasse, the French town known as the world’s perfume capital. The extraction process is a first in the perfume industry.

    The 162-year-old label’s master perfumer, Jacques Cavallier Belletrud, whose creations include Issey Miyake’s L’Eau d’Issey and Stella by Stella McCartney, spent months travelling the five continents to seek out exotic and rare materials for the fragrances.

    “I wanted to surprise people who smell the perfumes – create emotion, bring them back to childhood or moments of pleasure,” says Belletrud, who is a native of Grasse.

    His new fragrances include elements from countries including China, France, Indonesia, Italy, Laos and Peru.

    For Rose des Vents, he blended a trio of roses, centifolia, Bulgarian and Turkish; with Apogee, he uses lily of the valley, Grasse jasmine and Chinese magnolia.

    While most of the scents are floral, the range also has the more masculine notes of leather and wood (in the perfumes Contre Moi and Matiere Noire).

    Louis Vuitton gave Belletrud the freedom to work without a deadline, and he took four years to produce the range. “The challenge was to create something that would last over the years,” he says.

    The fragrances will be available in Singapore next month at Louis Vuitton boutiques at Marina Bay Sands and Ngee Ann City.

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  • Scion of Metro store family facing drugs charges

    Scion of Metro store family facing drugs charges

    A member of the family which founded Singapore’s iconic Metro department stores, Ong Jenn, is facing more than half a dozen charges related to the possession, consumption and trafficking of cannabis – which is a Class A controlled drug.

    Ong Jenn

    According to court documents obtained, the alleged offences happened in October 2014.

    For the amount of cannabis Ong has been accused of trafficking, he faces between five and 20 years’ jail and five to 15 strokes of the cane for each charge. For the possession and consumption of a controlled drug, the 41-year-old could be jailed for up to 10 years and/or fined up to S$20,000 per charge. His case has been scheduled for a pre-trial conference on Aug 19.

    Court documents detail how on or before Oct 30, 2014, Ong allegedly conspired with Mohamad Ismail Abdul Majid to traffic cannabis. On that date at about 4.20pm, along Jurong Port Road near bus stop B05, Mohamad Ismail was in possession of one block of “not less than 92.68 grams of… cannabis” and another block containing “385.1 grams of fragmented vegetable matter which was analysed and found to be cannabis mixture”.

    The charges allege that Mohamad Ismail had the two blocks so they could be delivered to Ong.

    At about 1.20pm the next day, in a car parked at Ngee Ann City, Ong was found in possession of a vaporiser, which is an inhalation device. According to the charge sheets, he allegedly intended to use the vaporiser to consume a Class A drug. Ong is also accused of consuming “11-nor-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid”, which is a component of marijuana.

    Authorities found Ong allegedly in possession of one block of cannabis weighing 75.32 grams and one block of cannabis mixture weighing 284.7 grams at a home in Bishopsgate at 2.10pm. He is accused of having these for the purpose of trafficking.

    Ong is represented by a team from law firm WongPartnership, including Senior Counsel Tan Chee Meng. Ong’s lawyers declined to comment as proceedings are ongoing.

    According to his LinkedIn profile, from 2003 until August this year Ong was a Business Development Manager at Metro Holdings, whose core businesses are retail, property development and investment. The retail interests include three Metro stores in Singapore. He’s also the founder of Tompang, a peer-to-peer retail platform operator.

    Metro’s latest annual report lists Ong as a “substantial shareholder” in Metro Holdings as at Jun 13. Ong is the son of the late Jopie Ong Hie Koan, who helmed Metro from 1973 until his death in February this year.

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  • Starhill Global Reit’s Q2 distribution per unit rises 2.3%

    Starhill Global Reit’s Q2 distribution per unit rises 2.3%

    YTL Starhill Global REIT (SGReit) said its second quarter distribution per unit rose by 2.3 per cent to 1.32 cents.

    Revenue for the three months ended Dec 31 grew by 13.8 per cent to S$55.6 million while net property income (NPI) rose by 10.4 per cent to S$43.7 million.

    The growth in revenue and NPI was mainly driven by the contribution from Myer Centre Adelaide which was acquired in May 2015 and the resilience of the Singapore portfolio performance.

    This was partially offset by lower contributions from China and net foreign currency movements. Income distributable to unitholders was S$28.8 million, up 3.7 per cent. On an annualised basis, the second quarter distribution represents a yield of 6.94 per cent, based on the unit closing price of 75.5 cents as at Dec 31. Unitholders can expect to receive their distribution on Feb 29.

    YTL Starhill Global chairman Francis Yeoh said the Reit delivered another strong earnings growth in the second quarter, underpinned by the resilience of the Singapore portfolio and contribution from its latest acquisition.

    “While Asia’s economic growth is expected to ease, we are confident our prime assets in key Asia-Pacific cities will remain resilient in an evolving retail landscape,” he noted.

    SGReit’s Singapore portfolio, comprising interests in Wisma Atria and Ngee Ann City on Orchard Road, contributed 60.8 per cent of total revenue or S$33.8 million.

    Its NPI increased by 2.7 per cent to S$27.3 million, led by positive rental reversions achieved in previous quarters. Singapore retail portfolio recorded flat rental reversions for leases committed during the quarter.

    Wisma Atria retail revenue increased 1.7 per cent and its NPI grew 3 per cent over the previous corresponding period on the back of higher revenue and lower operating expenses.

    On the flip side, tenant sales at Wisma Atria declined 1 per cent, mainly due to lower committed occupancies at the mall and tenant transitions during the quarter. Shopper traffic was down 2.5 per cent as the majority of Isetan’s strata-owned space remained closed for renovations since April 2015.

    Wisma Atria retail recorded lower committed occupancy of 94.9 per cent as at Dec 31, largely due to tenant mix reconfiguration at level 1. Ngee Ann City retail revenue gained 1 per cent while NPI increased 2 per cent. The next rent review for the Toshin master lease is due in June 2016.

    Meanwhile, the Singapore office portfolio continues to be supported by leasing demand as office supply pipeline in Orchard Road remains limited. The Singapore office portfolio revenue and NPI increased 3.9 per cent and 3.4 per cent respectively, on the back of 1.7 per cent positive rental reversions for leases committed in the second quarter.

    As at Dec 31, full occupancies were achieved for both Wisma Atria and Ngee Ann City offices. Some 40 per cent of the office leases due for expiry this financial year by gross rent have been either renewed or newly leased out as at Dec 31. SGReit units today ended half a cent higher at 73 cents.

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  • F&B underpinning demand for Singapore retail space

    F&B underpinning demand for Singapore retail space

    Food and beverage has overtaken fashion as the primary driver of demand for retail real estate in Singapore.

    In its Third Quarter Retail Index covering Asia-Pacific, property company Jones Lang LaSalle says that despite declining retail sales and consumer spending, the prime retail sector remained in good shape during the third quarter.

    “Notwithstanding the overall challenging retail environment, Singapore’s most popular prime shopping destinations continued to demonstrate resilient performance, with malls such as Ngee Ann City, Paragon and Ion Orchard maintaining full occupancy,” the report concluded.

    “F&B has overtaken fashion retailers as the top demand driver.”

    Orchard Rd is ranked fifth most expensive in Asia for High Street net face rents with a figure of US$4106 per square metre per annum. That’s a fraction of the $19,476 of top placed Russell St in Hong Kong, and behind Shanghai’s West Nanjing Rd at $5473.

    But on a quarterly basis, the average shopping centre rent in Orchard Rd and District 9 fell by 0.4 per cent quarter on quarter, and by 0.7 per cent year on year. It was the only city of 18 measured by JLL to record a reduction, despite the highly publicised downturn in Hong Kong retail rents. (This is largely due to that comparison measuring shopping centre rental rates which have to date remained relatively unaffected in Hong Kong’s turmoil).

    JLL predicts “further rental correction” in Singapore amid subdued occupier demand “as labour market challenges and weak consumer sentiment prevail in the near term”.

    The report said that despite leasing support from new market entrants into the city, expansion of existing retailers has slowed and some have cut back their store networks.

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