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Smaller tenants of One Raffles Place were upset of the impending closure of bigger brands at the mall, reported The Straits Times.
The six-storey mall saw 14 of its 113 tenants close their stores, while 13 are expected to leave next month – making almost a quarter of the mall’s retail space vacant.
Among those that have closed include Japanese fashion retailer Uniqlo, South Korean cafe Paris Baguette and American lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret.
Tenants including Swiss watch brand Swatch, travel products store Tumi, shoe brand Melissa and Danish jeweller Pandora are expected to shut down after they opted not to renew their lease contracts.
Other tenants who are moving out include Blow + Bar hair salon, Yami Yogurt and Evergreen Stationery.
A tenant who spoke on condition of anonymity said he was “shocked” to find that the mall’s bigger tenants are closing their stores.
“I renewed the lease as the rental was reduced, though it’s still on the high side. But even so, it wasn’t revealed to us that so many tenants…would be closing shop.”
Nur Zalifah, assistant boutique manager at The Body Shop, revealed that the outlet on level three will move out on 1 June as it has not been making a profit.
She noted that number of customers coming into the store fell after next door neighbour Uniqlo ceased operations earlier in the month.
A Mr Teh Tarik Express employee, on the other hand, attributed the café’s decision to move out to a doubling of rent by the landlord.
This article was edited by Denise Djong.
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