New hotels to replace decades-old Katong Plaza and former President Merlin Hotel in Kitchener Rd

Katong Plaza and Novotel Singapore on Kitchener hotel were in the past two years sold to new owners. ST PHOTOS: AZMI ATHNI, ARIFFIN JAMAR

Ng Keng Gene

UPDATED Jun 03, 2025, 07:10 PM

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SINGAPORE – The decades-old Novotel Singapore on Kitchener hotel and Katong Plaza are set to be replaced by new hotel developments.

Both properties, which date back to around 1981, were in the past two years sold to new owners who have recently secured at least provisional planning approvals from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to carry out their redevelopment plans.

In 2023, UOL sold its hotel Parkroyal on Kitchener Road for $525 million to Worldwide Hotels, a Singapore-based firm that owns hotel chains such as Hotel 81 and Hotel Mi.

The hotel re-opened in November that year as the 543-room Novotel Singapore on Kitchener , a brand under French multinational hospitality company Accor .

The hotel is on a freehold 7,780.1 sq m site and has a gross floor area of 37,827.71 sq m.

As at the end of the first quarter of 2025, Worldwide Hotels subsidiary Midtown Development has permission to redevelop the property into a hotel with 1,625 rooms over 37,143 sq m of hotel space, and 1,214 sq m of retail space.

The hotel opened in 1981 as President Merlin Hotel – a part of the President Hotel and Shopping Complex that also included the President Shopping Centre which opened in 1970 .

The hotel was later rebranded New Park Hotel in 1990 after a $30 million facelift, and in 2007 became Parkroyal on Kitchener Road, while the shopping centre was demolished in 2017 to make way for Centrium Square.

A spokesperson for Worldwide Hotels told The Straits times on June 3 that the company is presently unable to share further details about the new hotel.

Meanwhile, Katong Plaza in Brooke Road, which opened around the start of 1981 , is set to make way for a hotel with 374 rooms over 9,932 sq m of hotel space, and 537 sq m of retail space.

The strata-titled mixed-use development near Marine Parade MRT station with 132 retail units and 14 residential apartments, was in 2024 sold to Fragrance Group for $180 million .

At the time of the sale, the building’s owners had outline permission from the URA to convert it for hotel use.

The existing building is on a freehold 3,162 sq m site and has a gross floor area of 9,488 sq m.

The Fragrance Group did not respond to requests for comment.

When ST visited the building on May 30, most of the retail tenants had vacated their units, while some were in the process of packing up and said that they had to leave by end-June.

Items at a traditional Chinese medicine clinic being kept on May 31, ahead of the closure of Katong Plaza. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI

A notice dated April 16, put up alongside minutes of the building’s collective sale committee’s meetings, stated that owners choosing to stay in the building until July 2025 will be responsible for covering all expenses such as air-conditioner and lift maintenance fees.

Traditional Chinese medicine practitioner John Ng, 70, who has operated a clinic in the mall since April 2006, said he was disappointed to leave behind neighbours of almost two decades.

“We all knew each other and were very friendly. Everyone trusted each other and I could leave my clinic unattended knowing others would help to keep watch,” said Mr Ng , who was in the process of relocating his clinic to Kreta Ayer in Chinatown .

Mr Alan Cheong, Savills Singapore’s executive director of research and consultancy, expects that the Katong site will house a mid-tier hotel, given the planned number of rooms.

He also pointed out that the Kitchener Road hotel is likely to be an economy-tier hotel geared towards mass market tourism, adding that Worldwide Hotels’ plan to triple the number of rooms at the Kitchener Road site is “logical”, as the move will help the hotelier to boost its earnings.

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Asked if there is sufficient demand for rooms in the Farrer Park and Marine Parade areas to justify the planned supply, analysts said Singapore’s hotel market has performed strongly in the past 12 to 18 months.

Mr Edwin Loo, an associate director at real estate consultancy Cistri, said: “Much of this growth is in the mid-market and upscale segments, reflecting Singapore’s success in attracting event-focused visitors as well as visitors from emerging Asia who are willing to spend but remain price sensitive given Singapore’s relatively higher room rates when compared to other regional destinations.”

But Mr Loo felt that the planned redevelopment of Katong Plaza was a lost opportunity from a planning and design perspective, as the site is relatively long and narrow and could be better-used if redeveloped alongside the adjacent Roxy Square.

Mr Edwin Loo, an associate director at real estate consultancy Cistri, felt that the planned redevelopment of Katong Plaza was a lost opportunity from a planning and design perspective. ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI

“An integrated development incorporating both of these sites would have resulted in a better outcome in terms of land optimisation and urban design, especially considering the need to accommodate the extensive pick-up, drop-off and coach parking requirements at the ground level and the potential for a larger site to provide greater amenity for the community,” he said.

Ng Keng Gene is a correspondent at The Straits Times, reporting on issues relating to land use, urban planning and heritage.

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