1963 Siglap HDB block to escape demolition, be kept for public use

Once slated for demolition, one Housing Board block in East Coast Road could instead be repurposed for community or social use, or could even house new shops, after a recent decision by the authorities to retain the building.

- Ng Keng Gene

Located across the road from Siglap Centre, the five-storey block is among a cluster of four low-rise HDB blocks that were set to be torn down after it was part of a Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (Sers) project announced in 2011.

Instead, Block 1 East Coast Road will be retrofitted with new features, such as a new lift and staircase, and get a fresh lease of life, after the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) on Sept 24 called a tender for consultants to oversee the building's refurbishment.

The tender reverses an earlier decision to demolish Block 1. Instead, the authorities now want consultants to turn the vacant building into a "tenantable condition" for social, community and commercial use.

SLA said it wants to do this while "preserving the heritage and collective social memory of the former residential flats", adding that the internal layout of the block may be reconfigured for its future use.

Meanwhile, the three neighbouring blocks will be torn down, after the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) gave HDB the go-ahead on Sept 6 to demolish blocks 2 to 4.

The government agencies' decision to keep Block 1 is a rare case of an HDB housing block being retained and repurposed for other uses.