Some malls make the most of their carparks

Source : Straits Times - 8 Sep 2008

Several shopping malls have been converting parts of their carparks to other uses over the past few years as well.

For instance, about one-quarter of the lots in Hougang Mall and the White Sands Mall in Pasir Ris were converted to retail use in 2006 and last year respectively.

The spaces became shops and facilities, such as travellators, nursing rooms and children’s play areas, after the authorities relaxed lot rules for commercial buildings near MRT stations, said Ms Stephanie Ho, deputy general manager of AsiaMalls Management, the buildings’ management.

Under the Land Transport Authority’s old parking provision standards, malls must have one car space per 200 to 400 sq m of gross floor area, depending on which zone it is in.

In 2005, the rule was relaxed so malls in the Central Business District or near MRT stations can go below this requirement by up to 20 per cent.

Ms Ho said this move had increased shopper traffic, and made ‘more efficient use of the carpark’, with the number of cars using a lot per day increasing by up to 70 per cent in some cases.

In 2000, Parkway Parade in Marine Parade also converted about 100 lots to ‘leasable space’, its spokesman said.

At Raffles City, a large chunk of what used to be the Basement 1 carpark was converted into shops such as pharmacies, eateries and lifestyle shops.

However, it replaced the lots by carving them out of unutilised space in Basement 2 and 3, its spokesman said.

A spokesman for carpark management company Elite Parking said: ‘The income from carpark space versus shops or offices is too great a difference.

‘Most building owners will take up the chance to gear up income.’

However, if a mall cannot pull in the crowd, the number of parking spaces available does not matter, said carpark management company Metro Parking’s managing director Tyrone Lopez.

He said he believed the reduction of parking lots in buildings was not happening on a large scale as yet.

‘Reducing supply of parking lots fits in with the overall government transportation policy,’ he said. Reducing the supply of lots will ‘in the long run reduce the volume of traffic in a given area’.

Mr Nicholas Mak from Knight Frank said most building owners would weigh the cost of business disruption from the conversion against the possible additional revenue to see if it makes business sense.

He added that this trend would unlikely affect office buildings, because carparks in offices with their ‘low ceilings, no view, poor air’ make for ‘very undesirable space’.