The last time civil servant Raymund Francis set foot in Capitol Theatre was more than 20 years ago. He remembers the first movie he watched there was Cannonball Run, a 1981 comedy starring Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore and Farah Fawcett. Capitol Theatre was also the rendezvous for his first date with his girlfriend, now his wife, at the age of 15.

“Capitol will always be etched in my memory,” says the 48-year-old.

As a National Service man back in 1982, Francis enjoyed a concessionary rate of $1.50 at the cinemas, compared with the normal ticket price of $3. So, on his days off, he would embark on a movie marathon — catching the 11am movie at Capitol and the 1.30pm movie at Odeon, followed by the 4pm show at Lido or Orchard Theatre.

Capitol Building, located in front of Capitol Theatre, was where the Magnolia Snack Bar and Merlin Cafe used to be and was a popular haunt among teenagers. Next door to it was Peninsula Plaza, where one bought Amco and Lee Cooper jeans, did Christmas shopping for clothes and had tailored suits made. Francis, for one, had his wedding suit made there. “You don’t go there to buy clothes now,” he reminisces. “These days, I go there for musical instruments, guitars.”

Francis intends to bring his wife and their three grown children — daughters aged 23 and 19 and son aged 10 — to revisit the rejuvenated Capitol site when it reopens in 2H2014. And, perhaps a new generation will be building their memories there as well.

The consortium that won the Capitol site last October is tapping this nostalgic vein and looking back to the rich history of the site for inspiration. With 45% of the Singaporean population above the age of 40, many, like Francis, have fond memories of Capitol. The bet is on a melding of the old with the new to resuscitate an area that has lost its shine.

“The site will be collectively re-energised, adapted and conserved to be a place we hope all Singaporeans can be proud of and many guests will want to visit because of its place in our history and identity,” Kwee Liong Seen, director of Chesham Properties, said in a speech at the building agreement-signing ceremony on Feb 1.

Chesham Properties owns a 30% stake in the consortium; Pua Seck Guan’s Perennial Real Estate holds 40%; and Top Global, controlled by Sukmawati Widjaja (sister of tycoon Oei Hong Leong), with her son Hano Maeloa as CEO, holds the rest. They plan to invest an estimated $750 million (including the land cost of $250 million) to redevelop the 154,000 sq ft Capitol site, which comprises Capitol Theatre, Capitol Complex, Stamford Building and Capitol Building.

Restoration and redevelopment
Part of the plan is to restore Capitol Building and Stamford House and transform the two into a luxury hotel with some 200 rooms. Stamford House was once used as a hotel, in fact, with two floors acting as an annex to the legendary Raffles Hotel. The building was converted into the Oranje Hotel in 1933. After World War II, the hotel rooms were leased and the ground floor became shops.

Will the new hotel see competition from its neighbours? Just across the street from the Capitol site is Raffles City, a mixed-use development that has an underground link to the City Hall MRT station. It contains the 1,261-room Swissotel The Stamford and the 769-room Fairmont Singapore. There is also the legendary Raffles Hotel on Beach Road with 103 suites and Carlton Hotel on Bras Basah Road, which boasts 915 rooms, with the opening of its new wing last May.

“With about 200 rooms, this [Capitol Building and Stamford House] property is much smaller,” Melissa Kwee, senior vice-president of Chesham Properties, conceded at the press conference. “Clearly, we want to do something that will preserve the heritage [of the place] and give it a more modern flavour. Given that there’s a theatre component, we want to integrate that into the hotel’s identity as well.”

As for Capitol Theatre, after being shuttered for almost 13 years, it will finally be restored to its full glory and reopen as the largest single-screen cinema in Singapore, with 800 seats. It will also be the choice venue for red carpet movie premieres and film festivals, according to the consortium. The theatre will host local in-house theatre and dance groups for half the season, with Golden Village operating as the cinema operator there for the rest of the season.

“The theatre will inject a lot of life and energy into the whole place,” said Pua, CEO of Perennial. Cultural activities, the arts and entertainment would not just drive traffic to Capitol but also give the place its identity, he added.

While Capitol Building, Capitol Theatre and Stamford House will be conserved and restored, Capitol Centre, located between Capitol Building and Peninsula Plaza, will be torn down and redeveloped into a 15-storey residential tower with four levels of retail space (spanning Levels 1 and 2 and Basement 1 and 2). There will also be an underground pedestrian mall at Basement 2 linking the entire development to the City Hall MRT station across the road.

From left: Melissa Kwee, Pua, Maeloa and Micheal Palladino of Richard Meier & Partners Architects at the media conference

Old World charm, new-to-market brands
In Capitol Building, there will be street-level retail and F&B shops. A pedestrian galleria will also feature retail shops and restaurants, much in keeping with the past, when there was an alley leading from Capitol Building to Capitol Theatre dotted with tented sarabat stalls selling teh tarik, mee goreng and rojak, as well as the famous beef noodles and char kuay teow.

Retail is a significant component of the whole project, accounting for 236,000 sq ft, or close to 50% of total gross floor area (GFA). At least 40% of the retail space will feature new-to-market brands, with eight new retail brands and 30 F&B outlets. “There are many large malls around here,” concedes Pua. “So, we need to make it different and retain the charm of the place.”

The residential component containing 60 to 70 units will capitalise on the location and views. Lower floor units will overlook picturesque St Andrew’s Cathedral, while the higher floors will offer unobstructed views of Marina Bay. Given that the neighbourhood is made up of conservation properties, which will not be demolished and rebuilt, residents are assured that “the view will be unchanged over the years”, says Pua. “That’s why in the tender stage, I advised my consortium partners that we shouldn’t build more than 60 to 70 units, otherwise it would be too dense and spoil the character as well as the charm of the site.”

A model of the new Capitol site, with the restored Capitol Building, Capitol Theatre and Stamford House and a new 15-storey residential-cum-retail block

The residences, sized at 1,200 to 2,000 sq ft, will occupy the third to 15th levels of the new block. The residential project is scheduled for launch towards the second half of this year, says Top Global’s Maeloa. In terms of sales price, he estimates it at $2,500 to $3,000 psf.

The land cost of $250 million translates into $461 psf of GFA. Assuming a construction cost of $600 psf for a luxury residential development, the breakeven cost is only around $1,100 psf. “All I can say is that we have a very comfortable breakeven cost,” says Pua.

Located in the heart of the civic and cultural district, the Capitol site is surrounded by houses of worship — not just St Andrew’s Cathedral, but also Masjid Bruhani mosque, the Cathedral of Good Shepherd and the Armenian Church, which was built in 1835. “The Capitol site is irreplaceable,” says Pua.

This point was driven home to him by an Australian colleague and senior executive. House-hunting 15 years ago, the Australian traversed the whole of Singapore and came to the conclusion that there were only two residential neighbourhoods for him — the exclusive Nassim area near Botanic Gardens and the Stamford Road-Bras Basah district — recalls Pua.

“He said the precinct is rich in cultural history, but it was something that few Singaporeans appreciated. He asked me to help him find a suitable place, and we’ve been hunting for a residential project in this neighbourhood ever since, but we couldn’t find one.” Until now, that is.