Singapore Church Pays $40M to Resurrect Former Orchard Towers Nightclubs

The Singapore government has set out plans to rejuvenate the city’s Orchard Road commercial strip, and an evangelical church is now contributing to that effort by giving one of the city’s most notorious night spots a chance to be born again as a house of worship.

Cornerstone Community Church announced on its website this week that it has acquired a pair of retail properties in Orchard Towers, once famous as Singapore’s “Four Floors of Whores” with plans to convert the space into its newest location.

Founded by husband and wife pastors Yang Tuck Yoong and Daphne Yang in 1989, and having earlier rehabilitated former nightspots on Singapore’s east coast, Cornerstone Church has a history of resurrecting former places of ill-repute.

“Redeeming dark places and being situated in commercial spaces in the heart of the community have come to be a significant part of our DNA as a church,” Yang said. ”The two adjacent properties at Orchard Towers would be the 7th & 8th such acquisitions and these properties, once a stronghold of the enemy, is now being claimed by the people of God.”

Vision for the Kingdom

With the two shops spanning more than 19,000 square feet (1765 square metres), Yang pointed to the acquisition as an opportunity to expand the church’s footprint as it outgrows its current locations in rented theatres in the Bugis area.

“For several years now, our church has been seeking additional space to accommodate the needs of our growing community,” Yang said. ” Our congregation at Cornerstone Bugis is growing and many attendees with children would benefit from a Cornerstone location closer to central Singapore.”

The church is paying a combined S$54.5 million ($40.23 million), or S$2,825 per square foot, for the space, according to an account in The Business Times, with the properties having once housed a nightclub known as Crazy Horse, before Singapore authorities stopped renewing licenses for nightlife outlets operating in the building beyond May 2023.

Yang’s vision for the new space is to create a 550-seat auditorium, along with a dedicated space for a children’s church, once the acquisition is completed later in this quarter. Renovations are expected to be completed by year-end at the earliest.

Orchard Revival

Having established a foothold in one of Singapore’s key commercial districts. Pastor Yang is keen to expand his kingdom, pointing to challenges in redeveloping Orchard Towers, which is owned by a variety of strata-title investors as providing fertile ground for further acquisitions.

“A permanent home in Orchard with low en-bloc potential also means more sustainable operations for our “Bugis” congregation and the possibility of opening more service slots for our numerous language congregations during the weekend as well,” Yang said. ”Furthermore, the retail units surrounding the auditorium offer space for potential future expansion should our footprint need to grow in the city.”

An attempted S$1.6 billion collective sale of Orchard Towers in 2022 failed as big ticket redevelopment projects have struggled in the face of higher interest rates.

Despite that failed sale attempt, Orchard Towers is located close to a number of major redevelopment projects, including Delfi Orchard, at the intersection of Orchard and Claymore Roads, which City Developments Ltd purchased via a S$439 million collective sale last year.

Analysts speculate that CDL will combine the commercial building a few steps away from Orchard Towers with the adjacent Orchard Hotel, for a major redevelopment project.

Directly opposite Orchard Towers, Ong Beng Seng’s Hotel Properties Ltd is set to demolish The Forum mall, the Voco Orchard Singapore hotel and the HPL House commercial block for redevelopment into a 114,153 square metre mixed-use complex.

In line with the church’s emphasis on the life everlasting Pastor Yang in his statement pointed to the appeal of permanent ownership of land in the midst of Orchard Road’s revival.

“Orchard Towers presents a rare freehold opportunity prime real estate, which has been earmarked for renewal,” Yang said. “This bodes well, both for the ongoing value of the property as well as the availability of amenities surrounding the church which already has an adequate selection of transport options, malls, food, and shops surrounding it.”