Golden Mile Complex: A final look at Singapore’s ‘Little Thailand’
Thai Supermarket, a mainstay at the complex since 1985, photographed in 2018. The supermarket will move to Aperia Mall in Kallang Avenue in May 2023
Tenants at “Little Thailand”, as Golden Mile Complex has come to be known, are bidding it adieu as the building is set for redevelopment. A popular hangout for the Thai community and local residents for its array of Thai goods, eateries and bars among the mixed bag of tenants that included tour agencies and bus operators, Golden Mile will be vacated by May.
The iconic building, designed by local architects Gan Eng Oon, William Lim and Tay Kheng Soon and completed in 1973, was one of Singapore’s first high-rise mixed-use developments and is gazetted for conservation.
Thai Supermarket moves to Aperia in April
Aperia in Kallang will soon be the home of Thai Supermarket and Nana Thai restaurant, which are relocating from Golden Mile Complex. ST PHOTO: RYAN CHIONG
After almost 40 years of doing business in Golden Mile Complex, Thai Supermarket is relocating to Aperia, bringing a little piece of Little Thailand to the mall in Kallang. The current supermarket will close on April 9 and is likely to reopen at the end of April or early May in the new location. Renovations, costing a seven-figure sum, have already started.
Tenants at the 50-year-old Golden Mile Complex, a landmark on Beach Road, have been relocating after a successful collective sale in May last year. It went for $700 million to a consortium comprising Far East Organization, Perennial Holdings and Sino Land. The sale dismantles Singapore’s Little Thailand, with its concentration of Thai grocery and clothing shops, hair and nail salons, restaurants and bars.
At the centre of the action has been Thai Supermarket, set up in 1985 by the five Loh brothers. One of them, Mr Loh Yuen Seng, 59, had been doing business in Golden Mile Complex since 1985, when he sold trousers in a tailor shop. In the beginning, he and his brothers catered to Thai workers from construction sites in the area, who would shop and eat at the complex.
related: Goodbye Golden Mile
End of 'Little Thailand': Tenants to move out of Golden Mile Complex before May 2023
Tenants of Golden Mile Complex will have to vacate the premises before the building is handed over to the developers come May 2023, following a successful en bloc sale.
The commercial area in the building has amassed a majority of Thai eateries, grocery stores, and bars, among other businesses. It has become a community over time, attracting Thai folks in Singapore who either work at or frequent the shops, as well as locals who enjoy patronising the businesses there.
Over the years, these added to the character of Golden Mile Complex, christened "Little Thailand" by patrons. With the coming redevelopment of the building, tenants and patrons alike expressed sadness at the loss of a rare communal gem, Shin Min Daily News reported.
In the late sixties, the Singapore government launched several urban renewal projects at the city and downtown areas. The land between Beach Road and Nicoll Highway, dubbed as the Golden Mile, was one of the options for development.
By 1973, a new uniquely-shaped building Woh Hup Complex – better known as Golden Mile Complex – was completed at the site. The $18-million Woh Hup Complex was often lauded as an architectural wonder – its stepped terraces, designed to increase ventilation and natural light within the building, created a distinctive image of a sloping façade from far and made it a prominent landmark along Beach Road.
With more and more Thai stalls and shops popped up, food critics praised the dining and shopping experience at Golden Mile Complex as like being at Thailand’s famous bustling Pratunam. By the mid-eighties, Golden Mile Complex was nicknamed the “Little Thailand” or “Little Bangkok”, popularly known for its authentic and reasonably-priced Thai cuisine. It also became a gathering enclave for the Thai residents and workers in Singapore, who felt at home with their familiar Thai music, food and merchandise at the complex. In 1987, there were about 20,000 Thai workers in Singapore, which increased to 50,000 by the mid-nineties. In the 2000s and 2010s, mookata, a Thai barbeque steamboat, had rapidly garnered a following in Singapore. Golden Mile Complex, over the years, had numerous popular mookata restaurants and eateries occupying the first and second floor of the building.
One of Singapore’s most popular late-night makan spots is set to be shaken up after an announcement of a S$700 million en bloc sale. Golden Mile Complex was recently sold to a consortium - made up of Perennial Holdings, Far East Organization and Sino Land - after over 80 per cent of the strata-titled building’s owners agreed to the sale.
Due to its unique terraced Brutalist architecture, Golden Mile Complex was gazetted as a conserved building last year. CNA reports that the consortium intends to “sensitively restore” the 16-storey complex, with plans to transform it into a mixed-used development with retail, residential and office units. Which begs the question: What will happen to the building’s well-loved eateries?
At press time, some of Golden Mile Complex’s F&B owners tell 8days.sg that they are still unsure of what is to come. "We will continue operating, but it might not be in Golden Mile Complex as we're also not sure what's the building management's arrangement," says Yuang Somchua, 60, the owner of the famous Diandin Leluk Thai Restaurant which has been operating at Golden Mile since 1985. “For now the management and landlords have not revealed anything to us tenants,” shares Jaren Choong, 28, the owner of Thai pancake kiosk Baan Kanom Thai. He had set up shop within the building’s Thai Supermarket with his wife Fon C, 26, just in March this year.
ONE look at the Thai inscriptions on this sign and one* would think this is a taxi stand m Bangkok. But this quaint sign is found just outside Golden Mile Complex m Beach Road, right here m Singapore. Well-known to many Singaporeans as "Little Thailand"...
Singaporeans Bid Farewell To ‘Little Thailand’
Golden Mile Complex Tenants To Move Out By May 2023 Following Successful En Bloc Sale
Known for its Thai eateries, supermarkets, and night establishments, Golden Mile Complex has a special place in many Singaporeans’ hearts, especially for those who frequently head down for their late-night mookata fix.
But with the S$700-million en bloc sale finalised earlier this year, some feared that ‘Little Thailand’ may soon be no more. Recent developments have now proven this to be true. On 10 Aug, Edmund Tie & Company, the real estate firm in charge of the sale, announced that the building would be vacated and handed over to the developers by May 2023.
In other words, the renowned Thai establishments in the complex will soon have to move out of the iconic mall. While some stall owners plan on retiring, others plan on relocating. Regardless of their decisions, most of them will leave the iconic mall with feelings of nostalgia. Some Golden Mile Complex tenants mull retirement while others relocate.
