Marina Square to transform into 'hyper-mixed' 24/7 destination with living, hospitality, office, retail, sports, wellness, culture: SingLand

Singapore Land Group (SingLand) on Sept 1 announced details of how it will partially redevelop and reposition the Marina Square complex on Raffles Boulevard, with the project slated for completion by 2031.

The 9.2ha complex will be turned into what the property investment and development group calls Singapore's first "hyper-mixed" development — with urban living, hospitality, workplaces, retail, sports, wellness and culture, all within a connected 24/7 destination.

Three new towers — a 204-unit luxury condo, a mixed-use block with a new 304-key hotel and offices, and 260-key serviced apartment block — will be integrated with the site’s three existing hotels: Pan Pacific Singapore; Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay, Singapore; and Marina Oriental, Singapore.

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The trio of existing hotels will remain fully operational throughout the works.

The four-storey retail mall will undergo a comprehensive asset enhancement initiative across more than 76,000 sq m (818,057 sq ft) of gross floor area (GFA). Its refreshed offerings will include a broader mix of F&B, sports, wellness and lifestyle concepts, as well as landscaped and pet-friendly environments.

Marina Square Shopping Mall will close on March 31, 2027, to facilitate construction.

Adding new homes, gardens, playscapes, arts and culture, sports facilities

Designed by UK-based PLP Architecture and Singapore firm DP Architects, the project will capitalise on the site’s recent GFA uplift to about 362,493 sq m.

SingLand said it received a grant of written permission under the URA’s Strategic Development Initiative (SDI) on Aug 31. Under the SDI scheme, the site will realise an increase in GFA to around 362,493 sq m, excluding bonus GFA for balconies and indoor recreation spaces.

The redevelopment will introduce luxury residences, serviced apartments, premium Grade A offices, public parks, arts and cultural spaces, as well as sports and wellness facilities.

A sheltered walkway at the first storey and an elevated botanical loop will connect pedestrians to One Raffles Link, Millenia Walk, Suntec City and the upcoming NS Square.

Among the three new towers will be a 19-storey mixed-use block, within which a 304-key hotel will sit on levels four to 10, alongside shared spaces for networking, events and social interaction.

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On levels 12 to 19 of this mixed-use block will be the office component with some 13,000 sq m of premium Grade A net lettable area, with views of Marina Bay, War Memorial Park and the Civic District.

Meanwhile, a new 24-storey serviced apartment block will house 260 keys with panoramic views towards Marina Bay and Bay East Garden.

Operators for both the new hotel and serviced apartments have yet to be appointed. SingLand said that together, the five hospitality assets at the complex will serve a wider range of guest profiles, stay patterns and lifestyle needs.

In addition, a 49-storey residential tower with a height of more than 190m will introduce 204 large-format luxury homes, ranging from three- to five-bedroom apartments and penthouses.

At the same time, the Marina Square project will look to create a more open and inclusive public realm.

The area above Stamford Canal, located along Raffles Avenue, will be transformed into a 6,500 sq m public park with planting, playscapes and event spaces.

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There will also be a network of spaces for placemaking and social activity. These include more than 4,000 sq m of privately owned public space connected to the upcoming NS Square; The Cube, a 700 sq m event venue on Raffles Boulevard, and The Oculus, a 300 sq m central atrium within the mall.

Jonathan Eu, CEO of SingLand, said: "By adding residences, serviced apartments and workplaces alongside the existing hotels — and repositioning the mall around experience-led retail, sports, wellness and community — we are creating a new ecosystem where people can live, work, stay and connect."

He added that this "hyper-mixed" approach is about designing different uses to reinforce one another, with the mall and public realm serving as shared platforms for activity throughout the day.

Biophilic architecture for sustainability and wellness

PLP Architecture said in a separate media statement on Sept 1 that its masterplan for the urban renewal project will be a “direct response” to American architect John Portman’s original architectural language and continue the London-based firm’s own portfolio of tropical modern buildings in Southeast Asia.

Portman pioneered the atrium hotel typology, with several of his works still standing in Singapore today — including Marina Square’s existing trio of hotels, which will be retained and integrated within the project.

His original "tropical modernist" design featured strong geometric forms, interconnected podium levels and large internal atrium spaces, emphasising placemaking within buildings themselves.

PLP said its precinct masterplan will "reinterpret Portman's inward-facing urbanism as a unified composition arranged within a new large-scale, multi-level urban garden" that will contain reimagined retail experiences and public spaces.

Lee Polisano, president of PLP, said the intent is to enhance landscape integration and ensure that the firm's architectural expression responds sensitively to the larger Marina Centre context and the existing Portman-designed hotels.

At the same time, as an advocate for biophilic architecture, PLP’s masterplan for the project also incorporates an elevated botanical loop around a sequence of gardens.

This will offer distinct spatial experiences and connect to six new nodes with terraces, a mall, concourse, and an 'oculus', as well as vertical circulation points across multiple levels.

Movement is therefore conceived as part of the placemaking experience, guiding visitors through a varied landscape of arrival, activity and transition, PLP noted.

The project also incorporates sustainability measures. For instance, the three new buildings will target the Green Mark Platinum Super Low Energy certification. A satellite plant connected to the Marina Bay district cooling network will provide energy-efficient cooling to the development and surrounding buildings.

The existing mall structure will be adaptively reused, as the whole-life carbon strategy extends to embodied emissions too, SingLand said.

On that note, PLP highlighted that the new design will save embodied carbon by retaining the structure of the existing retail podium.

"We are going to minimise demolition, maximise adaptive reuse, and limit new construction to small zones within the retail mall necessary for future-proofing," said Tina Qiu, partner at PLP, who leads the practice's Southeast Asia and China operations.

She added that other ways to decarbonise include the use of steel in construction, installing solar panels on canopies, and exploring low-carbon materials.

"We are experimenting with recycling and upcycling materials stripped out of the mall into outdoor furniture," Qiu shared.

Completed in 1986, Marina Centre was the first district developed within the wider Marina Bay area, combining offices, hotels and retail.