Tan Boon Liat tenants brace for break-up of furniture hub after en bloc sale

SINGAPORE: For decades, Tan Boon Liat Building has been where furniture retailers did something unusual: they sent customers to one another. If a shop did not have what a customer was looking for, it would direct them to a neighbouring retailer most likely to have it. Tenants at the furniture and home decor hub also organised block parties and created a directory to help customers navigate the 15-storey building on Outram Road - a rare initiative in a competitive industry. When news of the building's S$950 million (US$756 million) en bloc sale to Kingsford Group emerged on Tuesday (Jul 21) morning, some tenants took to a WhatsApp chat group to discuss their next moves, with a collective move mooted as a possibility. "My first port of call would be to band the community together and try to see whether we can do something together," said Mr Saurabh Mangla, who owns Ipse Ipsa Ipsum, a bespoke furniture brand that also provides interior design services. "If we can find a way to house people together, even if it's not the whole ecosystem but some parts of it, then slowly, it (may) build over time."

For most tenants, the uncertainty was not whether they would eventually have to leave, but when, where they could relocate to and whether Singapore's best-known furniture enclave could survive elsewhere. Built in 1976, the commercial mixed-use development comprises a 15-storey building at 315 Outram Road and a smaller two-storey building across the car park. The main building has 150 units that are mostly showrooms and warehouses for home decor, furnishings and carpets, with a smaller proportion of offices. It began gaining a reputation as a furniture hub in the late 2000s, when furniture retailers started moving in. One of the pioneers, Journey East, which has occupied the third floor since 2009 after relocating from Dempsey, remembers when there were only a handful of furniture retailers in the building.

"When we first moved in, there were only three (furniture shops)," said managing director Anita Sam. General manager Terence Teh said the building had photography studios, shipping companies and logistics businesses at the time. Over time, the furniture cluster grew into one of Singapore's go-to home decor destinations. But the business is taking things in its stride. "It was just a matter of when it was going to happen," Ms Sam said. "This presents us an opportunity to further refine and present a better spatial experience to our customer base," Mr Teh said, adding that the business had already been scouting potential new sites. Still, Mr Teh acknowledged that there was a "deep sense of nostalgia" attached to the building.

Years ago, anticipating that redevelopment might eventually happen, Journey East commissioned a series of photographs documenting Tan Boon Liat Building. "We knew that one day this building would be no more," Ms Sam said. Another long-time tenant, Japanese knife specialist Razorsharp, has not decided on its next steps and is in no rush to do so. Its owner David Lim has operated the ground-floor store for more than 20 years. "I am 71 years old, I'm not going to work until the day I die. And it's going to cost a lot of money to restart - I may lose 40 to 50 per cent of my present business, so it can be challenging," Mr Lim said. "I'm waiting until D-Day, when I must vacate the place. I will stay until the last day." Mr Mangla renovated his showroom just six months ago. "I thought it wouldn't go through," he said, referring to previous collective sale attempts over the years. "I thought there was nobody in the market to pay S$1 billion. Looks like I was wrong." Tan Boon Liat Building was first launched for sale in February 2025, at a reserve price of S$1.15 billion but did not attract a buyer, according to The Business Times. But Tuesday's announcement turned speculation into a reality that businesses now have to prepare for, even those that have barely settled in.

Furniture retailer Cancan opened one showroom in the building less than a year ago before expanding into a second unit four months ago. The company knew the collective sale remained a possibility but decided the location was still worth the risk. "Change is constant for business," said business development manager Jonathan Yung. "That's why we were okay to take up this possible challenge." Even so, Mr Yung said the timing came as a surprise. "We thought that it would not be so soon."

For now, the company plans to stay until it receives formal instructions from the landlord. "The challenge for us to change to a new location is that we need to find a location that is convenient for customers, and easy for them to find us," he said. "Most of them liked to come to Tan Boon Liat to take a look because there's many retail furniture stores, including kitchenware and mattresses." That concentration of businesses helped attract not only local homeowners, but architects, interior designers and expatriates searching for furniture in Singapore, he said. The collective sale also came as a surprise to William Liew, manager of Herman Furniture, a solid wood slabs specialist that moved into the building in 2022. "I heard that the bidding didn't go through in the first place, so I thought we were here to stay," Mr Liew said. However, he noted that foot traffic has thinned compared to when he worked part-time at another business in the building in the mid-2010s.

COLLECTIVE MOVE Now, many tenants worry less about moving than about losing the ecosystem they spent years building. Owner of Gabbeh Carpet, Mr Esmaeil Molazadeh said he had been the one to break the news to the tenant chat group on Tuesday morning. "There is an MRT just recently opened, we didn't even have much chance to enjoy that benefit," Mr Molazadeh said. Mr Molazadeh, who is also the honorary secretary of the Singapore Furniture Association, said the association could help tenants relocate collectively. By Tuesday afternoon, 13 members of the chat group from various brands had expressed their interest in a collective move, according to Mr Molazadeh.

He described a "kampung" culture, where tenants would drop by and chat with each other, unlike in malls, where tenants often operate in silos. Likewise, Muhammad Haziq Suip, general manager of furniture brand Rooma, said most tenants want to keep that community alive. "All our neighbours are friends, and they do different stuff, and it's a very nice combination of brands. "So when we move up from this building, also we want to still have that flavor, we still have that variety. Wherever we move, we want to move as a unit." Rooma's seven units across two floors occupy a combined 15,000 sq ft, with inventory worth millions. When the time comes to move, Rooma will likely hold a moving-out sale.

"There's a lot of memories. Even the contractors who work here, the maintenance guy is like family to us," Mr Haziq said. For now, most businesses remain in limbo. Many have leases that still have time to run, but there is no certainty on when they will need to vacate. Meanwhile, Mr Mangla said Singapore's furniture industry is already facing growing pressure from overseas competition, while others noted rising rents elsewhere, making relocation an additional burden for businesses that need large premises. He hopes shoppers will continue visiting the building despite the collective sale. "My wish to Singaporeans and residents is they continue to support the building. "My request is that they all keep coming in. We are all very stable businesses with a long history in Singapore and we would like to continue to enjoy their support."