Lease extended, but fate of Alkaff Mansion restaurant still uncertain
Alkaff Mansion Ristorante at Telok Blangah Hill Park is still deciding whether to take up a three-year tenancy renewal offered by the Singapore Land Authority. Photo: Wee Teck Hian
SINGAPORE — The future of Alkaff Mansion Ristorante at Telok Blangah Hill Park is up in the air, with the establishment still deciding whether to take up a three-year tenancy renewal offered by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA).
The Italian restaurant’s lease was due to expire in July this year. It asked to stay on until the end of the year, which the SLA has allowed.
But the tenancy renewal offer has not been formally accepted “due to commercial reasons”, said the restaurant’s marketing consultant Brandon Chu, who did not elaborate.
“In the meantime, we have agreed to extend the lease till the end of 2016 to honour the wedding and event bookings that have been made for 2016, as well as to continue discussions with SLA on the terms and conditions for the initial proposal of the three-year renewal of lease,” Mr Chu said.
The terms of the renewal was not disclosed by SLA or Alkaff Mansion Ristorante.
The tender for the black-and-white colonial-style building was won by food and beverage firm LES in 2010, whose bid of S$79,251 monthly rent — about three times the SLA’s guide rent of S$28,100 — beat out nine other contenders. After a S$5 million makeover, the restaurant opened to much fanfare in December 2011.
The two-storey Tudor-styled bungalow was built in 1918 by a member of the prominent Alkaff family — Arabs who arrived from Yemen in 1852 and ran a thriving trading business in sugar, coffee and spices between India and Indonesia.
Well-known as a gathering place for notable members of society in the 1930s, it underwent a S$5 million facelift to reopen as Alkaff Mansion in 1990, a popular Dutch-Indonesian restaurant that had bookings for about 120 weddings a year.
But the 2001 economic downturn, followed by the Sars outbreak in 2003, slowed business, forcing its closure. There was an eight-year hiatus before LES clinched the tender and opened the restaurant to much fanfare.
The building was awarded conservation status by the Urban Redevelopment Authority in June 2005, which means its facade, including the canopy, porch, windows and balustrades, must be retained.
A visit to the restaurant at lunchtime on Thursday (March 3) showed brisk business. There was also a group of tourists admiring the facade of the building.
A patron TODAY spoke to, Ms Sandra Loeb, 36, said the location and the venue drew her to the restaurant.
“It’s something very special (about this place), and (there aren’t other places) I can think of; someplace in the middle of all the greenery with a nice outdoor space and the (mansion),” added Ms Loeb, who works in marketing.
Mr Paul Ang, 58, noted that the mansion’s history and ambience makes it the perfect spot for a fine dining experience. “I think it has to remain a fine dining establishment (to keep the status) for this kind of area and building ... (with) all the history behind it,” said the manager.
He added: “But business is business. People can’t be putting in money (and not expect a return). Even the Government can’t do it. It has to be a business enterprise, an organisation that can come in and draw its own people, its own clients.”
