SINGAPORE – For much of the past three decades, bikers from across the island have gathered at Gillman Barracks at Handlebar – a bar dedicated to serving bike enthusiasts.
As the clock winds down on the tenancy of the biker’s bar and some 40 other firms at the former military site, business owners told The Straits Times on July 10 that they are taking a wait-and-see approach as they decide their next steps.
Handlebar founder Jan Pek said the future of her bar is uncertain beyond June 2030, when its current tenancy ends. She hopes the authorities will help businesses in the area to relocate.
“It took us forever to build this place, it’s not so easy to find another place,” she said, adding that she may have to close the bar if she cannot find a new location.
Handlebar has been at Gillman Barracks at 10 Lock Road since 2016, after a previous stint at the site from 1999 to 2010.
“It’s quite a pity. It’s a whole community, and it’s going to take a lot of effort to rebuild it,” Pek said.
Handlebar is one of 13 food and beverage (F&B) or lifestyle tenants at Gillman Barracks that are renting state properties from the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), along with 11 arts tenants.
Handlebar is one of 13 food and beverage or lifestyle tenants at Gillman Barracks that are renting state properties from the Singapore Land Authority.
ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO
The tenancies of these 24 tenants will expire progressively by the second quarter of 2030, after which HDB plans to redevelop the site for private and public housing.
Other tenants whose properties are within a 40ha site earmarked for the housing estate include residents of state properties and ISS International School in Preston Road, as well as the Academy of Singapore Teachers in Malan Road.
Within the site is also Richzone Properties Investment – the master tenant of a group of several buildings at 991 Alexandra Road since 2007 – as well as an archery range and a heavy vehicle park.
Mr Lek Guan Wei, an estate executive at Richzone, said his firm’s master tenancy ends in December 2026, and that the property will have to be returned to the state thereafter.
He added that the company’s 18 subtenants have begun making alternative arrangements, and some have secured sites elsewhere.
For instance, animal hospital Beecroft Animal Specialist Services will relocate to the annex building of Furama Riverfront.
The hospital’s co-founder Rina Maguire said it will work with clients to minimise disruption to their pets’ care.
After serving military purposes for decades from the 1930s, state properties at Gillman Barracks have since the 1990s been tenanted out for arts, F&B and lifestyle-related uses.
In 2012, the Government launched Gillman Barracks as Singapore’s arts district after a $10 million makeover, and SLA in 2020 took over management of the area from the Economic Development Board, the National Arts Council and JTC Corporation.
Since then, SLA has worked on putting out vacant state properties for various uses, and a spokesperson for the agency said on July 10 that it will continue to work with other Government agencies to do so until end-2029.
Roger Yip, co-founder of Mixes from Mars, the company that owns bar and restaurant chain Hopscotch, said it is too early to tell if its Gillman Barracks outlet will be relocated after its existing tenancy expires in 2028.
“We may move or add additional outlets, but we have no plans currently as we’re waiting for better spaces to come along,” said Yip, who opened Hopscotch’s Gillman Barracks outlet in 2018.
The Naked Finn, a restaurant that has been in the area since 2012, at Block 39 Gillman Barracks.
ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI
Of the five tenders for Gillman Barracks properties that SLA since launched in 2024 and 2025, three were either unawarded – suggesting that bids for them were too low – or not bid for.
Tan Ken Loon, owner of seafood restaurant Naked Finn, said they “have ideas on what to do after 2030” but these plans are not concrete.
The SLA spokesperson said that the Government’s development plans will not shorten any tenancies, and added that public agencies will engage Gillman Barracks tenants “in tandem with the future development plans for the site”.
“We understand that business transitions can be challenging, and have encouraged tenants to begin planning early ahead of their tenancy expiry,” she said.
