Life Power List 2024: The Lo & Behold Group’s MD Wee Teng Wen champions local brands with New Bahru

The Lo & Behold Group's managing director Wee Teng Wen at lifestyle enclave New Bahru. ST PHOTO: HESTER TAN

Eunice Quek

UPDATED Dec 21, 2024, 10:00 AM

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SINGAPORE – It was not some glitzy commercial mall with big overseas brands that grabbed headlines in 2024.

Instead, lifestyle destination New Bahru, a retail and food haven in Kim Yam Road championing Singapore-born brands, became the talk of the town in the second half of the year. 

In a cut-throat year where both the food and beverage as well as retail scene were savaged, few could pull off what Mr Wee Teng Wen, managing director of home-grown hospitality company The Lo & Behold Group, did at New Bahru.

Taking on a nine-year lease as the master tenant, the 44-year-old transformed the former Nan Chiau High School into a buzzing enclave of over 40 F&B and retail concepts with an accumulative spending of more than $25 million to set up. 

But with high stakes come high rewards. So far, this power move appears to have paid off. 

With openings in phases from June, the hipster hot spot has been a flurry of activity, with diners flocking to the likes of burger joint One Fattened Calf, Mexican eatery Huevos, PPP Coffee cafe and Sri Lankan restaurant Kotuwa. 

Restaurants by The Lo & Behold Group at New Bahru comprise nasi lemak specialist The Coconut Club, cocktail bar Bar Bon Funk and Somma, a fine-dining restaurant and cocktail bar led by Puglian chef-partner Mirko Febbrile. Somma was picked as the Best High-end Restaurant in The Straits Times’ Best Eats of 2024 list last week.

More than 40 per cent of the brands at New Bahru have established their flagship outlets there. These include design studio Beyond The Vines; Middle Eastern restaurant Artichoke; beauty brand Omno, known for its premium personal care products; and coffee machine brand Morning’s first physical store.

Mr Wee acknowledges it has been an “ambitious and challenging” endeavour that has put Singapore on the global lifestyle map. Not only has the establishment been drawing local visitors, but there has also been an influx of tourists.

“Our hands are very full and we are still digesting this big project. It has been fulfilling to see a revival of this neighbourhood and the tenants doing well,” he says. So far, the tenants are trading above their sales projections and several have extended their opening hours.

And Mr Wee is not done yet. 

What he calls “Phase Two” of New Bahru will see the renovation and development of two event areas – the former school hall and the adjacent factory space. 

Expect a pottery studio (The Potter’s Guilt), a ping-pong school and bar (Top Table) and a singing school (LOFT by The Singing Loft) in early 2025.

There will also be a food hall serving healthy, halal and local food options at more accessible price points, adds Mr Wee. 

In line with the school theme, New Bahru has kicked off Extra Curious Activities (a play on extra-curricular activities in school) – a series of design-led pop-up fairs that will showcase more than 30 booths across the two spaces. 

The first one, a Christmas edition held from Dec 6 to 8, saw more than 25,000 visitors flock to New Bahru.

This initiative supports emerging local brands that may not be ready to take a permanent space, says Mr Wee, who is married to contemporary visual artist Dawn Ng, 42. They have an eight-year-old daughter.

While New Bahru remains the focus of the group in 2025, says Mr Wee, its other existing concepts will work to improve content and programming. The group’s empire of big-name restaurants has been influential in raising the standards of the local dining scene, with 50,000 guests visiting its various venues every week.

Its popular Tanjong Beach Club in Sentosa, which opened in 2011, is undergoing a major renovation and will house a larger kitchen and a barbecue section. It is slated to reopen in the first quarter of 2025. 

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Over in Dempsey, the terrace area of French restaurant Claudine is also under renovation to introduce a new concept in early 2025. 

Also, stay tuned for celebrations as the group’s three-Michelin-starred French establishment Odette at the National Gallery Singapore marks its 10th anniversary. 

Other F&B concepts in the group include wine bar Le Bon Funk, one-Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant Esora and Italian restaurant Fico. 

Well aware that the hype over every new opening will eventually die down, Mr Wee is constantly looking at ways to sustain the businesses.

“We really try to create venues that can live on, and that means continually going back and refining and refreshing. We do not want to grow for the sake of it,” he says. 

And he does not rule out doing another version of New Bahru should an opportunity arise. 

“Maybe we could take on different sites,” he says. “The mission – to make the Singapore scene more lovable, vibrant and fun – has taken us on different journeys. We have the benefit of having a more flexible approach, to give entrepreneurs the platform to experiment and do their best work.” 

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