The owners of the World Trade Centre (WTC) have unveiled a revamp costing more than $30 million of its three levels of retail space to bring it in line with a major new harbourfront development springing up around it.

Already, existing retail tenants have given a vote of support for the upgrade by agreeing to stay on at more than double current rents.

The redevelopment by HarbourFront, an 80-20 joint venture between Temasek Holdings and PSA Corp, will be in two phases.The first will see the second and third levels of the complex and two-thirds of the first level completed by October.The second phase will involve the rest of the first level and will be finished in April next year.

It is timed to coincide with the completion of the initial construction of the nearby HarbourFront MRT Station.The newly designed retail floors will offer some 200,000 sq ft of net lettable space, a little more than the current space.

Already, more than 50 per cent of the space has been leased out. The upgrade is aimed at creating a more ‘modern and trendy’ shopping area that will be attractive to younger shoppers, compared to the family-oriented atmosphere now.

“We are very satisfied that 52 per cent of the available space has already been leased out and we expect up to 80 per cent to be taken up by next month”, HarbourFront managing director Jimmy Lee told The Straits Times yesterday. He said the initial response from tenants was very encouraging, given that the tender for construction of the project had been awarded only last month. HarbourFront vice-president for marketing Susan Sim said half the tenants who have signed up for space in the renovated mall were existing tenants.

The average rentals would be more than double current rates, with fashion-shop space going for $19 to $25 per sq ft (psf) compared to $8 to $10 psf now. Restaurants could pay up to $35 psf instead of $12 to $17 psf now.

Mr Lee said the rents were raised because the revamped WTC shopping centre would reap the benefits of being close to the planned one-million-sq-ft HarbourFront and the twin towers of the HarbourFront office park. All of these will be linked by pathways and overhead bridges.

“Accessibility will also improve with the MRT station just in front of it, and we expect between 35 and 36 million shoppers to visit the entire development annually.”

He said this figure included overseas visitors and local shoppers. The HarbourFront will be linked to Sentosa island by a “people mover system”.

Current tenants such as Cold Storage and McDonald’s will feature in the revamped shopping centre as well as existing medical and dental services.

Commenting on last month’s postponement of the awarding of the tender for a 100,000-sq-ft hypermarket in the massive HarbourFront, also being developed by HarbourFront, Mr Lee said there was a combination of factors that resulted in the delay. “Of the three rental bids received, two wanted more space and we want a bit more flexibility to consider these requests to see if we can fit them into our plans. Also, we have said before that we’re looking for an equity partner who will possibly take a 30 per cent stake in the mall and we feel that their input is important in the selection of a hypermarket tenant. But the development is still on schedule and we will review the bids again in the second or third quarter of this year.”