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Handlebar\u2019s Ms Pek, 57, said the bar will stay as long as it can, having built up a loyal customer base over nearly three decades. She hopes for support to continue the business after 2030.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause once it\u2019s gone, it\u2019s gone. And we will never be any younger. I don’t think we have the energy to rebuild and continue, or work for the next 10 years to be able to break even, to build the flow of customers again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lifestyle group byDIDI, which occupies Gillman Barracks’ Southern Depot and owns four companies in the area, has invested a substantial six-figure sum in the site and is now worried about recovering those costs.<\/p>\n
“Just being able to cover our regular operating expenses is something that we are concerned about,\u201d said the group\u2019s head of lifestyle operations Ewan Wong.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He added that uncertainty over the site’s future has made it harder to bring in new partners, as long-term investments are no longer seen as viable.<\/span><\/p>\n “In any case, our ROI (return on investment) has always been long term. Even in terms of being able to cover our initial capital expenditure, we’re looking at least a 30 per cent to 40 per cent loss already, having to cut short the time frame,\u201d said Mr Wong.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Gillman Barracks has also built an arts community that tenants say has taken time to cultivate.<\/p>\n Ms Theresia Irma, general manager of Mizuma Gallery, said people used to be intimidated to enter the galleries, but she now sees more young people and families visiting on weekends.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s great to have a place like this to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the city \u2026 And I wonder if we can ever have something like this in the future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Some tenants are concerned the arts cluster’s identity will be lost in redevelopment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mr Colin Wan, general manager and chief creative of non-profit Art Outreach, said Gillman Barracks is one of the only dedicated visual arts clusters in Singapore. He is on the lookout for alternative spaces but said suitable ones are hard to come by, and that the organisation is ready to extend its lease when it ends next year.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of the industrial places, they are not very accessible. But if you go to non-industrial spaces, then the rent will be too high,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Art Outreach promotes art education and supports the development of art practitioners in Singapore. Programmes during Singapore Art Week have brought returning visitors to subsequent shows, and audiences to Art Outreach during last year’s edition doubled compared to 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter all these efforts that the whole community in Gillman has done over the past few years, it would be a waste if we have to let it go just like that,\u201d said Mr Wan.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Handlebar\u2019s Ms Pek, 57, said the bar will stay as long as it can, having built up a loyal customer base over nearly three decades….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/68521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A SPACE FOR THE ARTS<\/h2>\n
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