First neighbourhood centre in Tengah opens with supermarket, foodcourt
Residents in Tengah will be served by a supermarket, foodcourt and fast-food restaurant with the opening of the new town’s first neighbourhood centre on June 28.
Plantation Plaza and an adjacent retail street, located in the middle of the first four Build-To-Order (BTO) projects in Tengah, will have 75 shops in total. A Giant supermarket, a Koufu foodcourt and a McDonald’s fast-food restaurant were the first three shops to open.
Signs at the centre, which occupies more than 10,000 sq m, also showed that lifestyle shop Daiso is set to open.
Hong Kah North MP Amy Khor, who visited the centre on the morning of June 28, said residents have been asking for more amenities within the new town.
Dr Khor, who is also Senior Minister of State for Transport, and Sustainability and the Environment, noted that the Housing Board brought in a FairPrice grocery truck and food vending machines to serve residents in Plantation Grange and Plantation Acres in December.
“But, of course, nothing beats having the physical stores here,” she said, adding that the remaining shops will open progressively.
Dr Khor added that the first bus interchange in Tengah, located in Tengah Boulevard, will open soon.
“Once it’s open, we can introduce new bus services and extend existing services so that it will enhance connectivity,” she said.
Residents are now served by two bus services. Bus service 992 takes residents to Bukit Batok MRT station and bus interchange, and Le Quest mall, while bus service 870 goes to Jurong Town Hall bus interchange.
The newly opened five-storey neighbourhood centre, which is integrated with the Plantation Village BTO project, will have other eateries, a clinic and enrichment centres.
Plantation Grange resident Saraswathi Suppiah, 72, said she had been looking forward to the centre’s opening since moving into her flat in May.
“It’s troublesome to travel to Bukit Batok to buy groceries and, sometimes, I have to wait more than 20 minutes for the bus to arrive. Now, I just have to walk 10 minutes to go to Giant,” the housewife said.
She added that the mobile grocer, which stopped at Plantation Grange once a week, had a limited variety of groceries, so she did not visit it often.
HDB said on June 28 that the grocery truck will stop operating with the opening of the 1,825 sq m Giant supermarket, while the vending machines will remain.
For logistics assistant Muhammad Haizrul, 30, the neighbourhood centre is a five-minute walk from his home in Plantation Grove.
He had been going to Bukit Batok – a 15-minute walk – to buy food and groceries since he moved into his three-room flat in May.
“I like that now there is a supermarket nearby. I also hope there would be more halal food options,” he said.
Retired businessman Vincent Cheah, 74, who moved into his two-room flat in Plantation Acres in November, said he hopes the neighbourhood centre would have a hair salon and clinic.
“I find living in Tengah convenient as it’s easy to get to malls in Jurong East, Bukit Batok and Clementi by public transport. It’s even better that there are now shops less than 10 minutes away on foot,” he said.
Ms Phyu War, store manager of the Giant outlet in Plantation Plaza, said she was excited about the store’s opening, having spent the last two weeks preparing for it.
“Residents said they have been waiting for quite long for a supermarket, and they are happy that Giant is ready,” she said.
HDB said on June 28 that most of the shops in the Plantation Plaza neighbourhood centre are expected to open by the fourth quarter of 2024.
Among the food and beverage outlets opening are Thai restaurant I Love Sukhothai, local eatery Lau Wang Claypot Delights and Japanese restaurant Kei Kaisendon. Residents can also look forward to athleisure store Skechers and Happy Fish Swim School, which holds indoor swimming lessons.
Koufu foodcourt, which currently has nine stalls in operation, occupies more than 900 sq m and can seat 372 people, HDB said. The remaining three stalls will open in August.
HDB said it worked to expedite Giant and Koufu’s move into the neighbourhood centre – it took around two months after the centre received its temporary occupation permit in April – by facilitating site meetings and accelerating the approval of necessary permits, among other efforts.
The retail street outside the neighbourhood centre is next to a green connector known as Plantation Farmway, which links the housing precincts and residents to recreational facilities.
A portion of the connector between Plantation Acres and Plantation Grange was completed in May, giving residents access to playgrounds, fitness corners and seating areas, HDB said. The entire stretch will be completed by December.
HDB added that four pre-schools will open in Tengah’s Plantation district by the end of 2024. A community club will also be completed in 2024.
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