Raffles Hotel to undergo restoration works
Raffles Hotel. Photo: Jason Quah
SINGAPORE — After 25 years since its last makeover, the Grand Old Lady is getting another facelift, and more.
Raffles Hotel Singapore said on Tuesday (Oct 11) it would embark on a restoration programme beginning next year, to be completed in the second quarter of 2018. It will redevelop the retail space in the Raffles Hotel Arcade, introduce new food and beverage concepts, and restore some of the suites and other rooms in the 129-year-old hospitality icon. The hotel declined to reveal the cost of the project, only saying that it is a “significant investment”.
“The redevelopment of our retail spaces is to create an improved and more attractive shopping environment, one that brings greater footfall and benefits to our future tenants,” said Mr Simon Hirst, general manager of Raffles Hotel Singapore.
The restoration will be conducted in three phases. Phase one of the programme will begin in January next year, in which the Raffles Hotel Arcade, which houses 40 regional and speciality shops, function areas and a variety of restaurants and bars including the Long Bar, home of the iconic Singapore Sling, will undergo restoration works. During this phase, the other areas of the property will operate as usual. The Singapore Sling will continue to be served at the hotel’s Bar & Billiard Room.
Phase two will begin in mid-2017, when restoration works will start on the main hotel building and lobby as well as some of the hotel suites. Following that, Raffles Hotel Singapore will close for the final phase near the end of the year, before a grand re-opening in the second quarter of 2018.
The restoration project will be led by Aedas Singapore, a leading global architecture and design firm behind high-profile restoration projects such as the London Coliseum and the revitalised Mallory Street/Burrows Street in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. After the restoration, hotel rates are expected to go up, but Mr Hirst assured that prices would still be in line with industry levels.
Raffles Hotel Singapore’s last restoration was conducted from 1989 to 1991, when it was closed for two-and-a-half years. The hotel currently has 103 suites, and the number is expected to remain about the same after the restoration.
Opened in 1887, Raffles Hotel Singapore is one of the few remaining great 19th-century hotels in the world. Singaporeans were shocked when the country’s most-famous national heritage symbol was sold by Raffles Holdings to United States private equity firm Colony Capital in 2005, which then sold it in 2012 to Qatari Diar, a real-estate company established by the Qatar Investment Authority. Raffles Hotel Singapore is now owned by Katara Hospitality, previously known as Qatar National Hotels Company.
