Orchard Central: upper-floor tenants move out by November as Deloitte takes over

The letter went out on 1 June. Tenants on levels 5 to 8, plus levels 11 and 12, are affected. Level 9 is the car park. Far East calls it an asset enhancement initiative, which is the industry term for gutting a building and putting it back together.

What makes this one different is that the upper floors are not coming back as shops. URA has granted in-principle approval for offices alongside the existing retail use, and Deloitte has secured permanent space across several upper levels. The move happens in 2027, once fit-out is done.

Deloitte is coming from OUE Downtown on Shenton Way, where it sits across about 150,000 sq ft on 11 floors and its lease expires at the end of 2026. In the interim its staff work out of a JustCo footprint in the Orchard belt.

That is the story. A Big Four firm is leaving the financial core for Orchard Road, and a landlord is converting mall floors to make room.

Who has to leave

Reported affected tenants, compiled from news coverage rather than an official register. Treat it as indicative.

Lease terms vary. Some expire at year end, some were extended to the mall's last day of operation, and some run past 30 November. Everyone still has to be out by the same date.

Benny Chong of Sublime Hairdressing pointed out that tenants with two or three years left are going too. Clarissa Tan, co-owner of Hom Yoga, said the landlord did not rule out renewals outright but was upfront that it was reviewing the whole building.

That is what vacant possession looks like from the tenant side. You cannot rebuild half a floor plate around a sitting F&B operator, so the leases end together regardless of where each one stood. It is contractually clean and commercially brutal at the same time.

What Far East says is coming

New dining options, new public art, and better pedestrian connectivity including a link bridge to the revamped Istana Park. All subject to authority approval. The lower retail floors keep trading, so the mall is not closing.

Marc Boey, Far East's executive director of property services, said Orchard Central will continue to operate as a retail and lifestyle destination, and that the group's view is that the next phase of growth for Orchard Road comes from a stronger mix of retail and lifestyle offerings, homes and workplaces across the precinct.

Challenge of upper floors in malls

Upper mall floors have always been the hardest space to lease. Footfall drops with every level you go up, which is why levels 5 and above end up filled with gyms, karaoke, VR and destination dining rather than anything that depends on walk-in traffic. Converting those floors to office is a way of solving a leasing problem, not just a design one.

The timing also rides a widening split in the commercial market. URA's figures show office demand firming while retail softens. In the first quarter of 2026, occupied office space grew by a net 26,000 sq m and the islandwide office vacancy rate eased to 10.8 per cent, from 11.1 per cent. Over the same period retail rents slipped 0.6 per cent and net retail take-up all but stalled. By the second quarter the divide had widened further, with retail vacancy climbing to about 7 per cent and occupied retail space shrinking, even as Grade A CBD office rents were expected to rise 4 to 5 per cent across the year.

In other words, the part of the market with demand is offices, and the part under pressure is retail, especially the harder-to-fill space above street level. That is the trade Far East is making at Orchard Central, and it is a trade other landlords with dead upper floors can now see the logic in. Once one Orchard mall converts its top floors to office and lands an anchor the size of Deloitte, the same move gets easier to justify next door.

For occupiers, the practical read is that Orchard is now a live option for a corporate address rather than a retail street you visit at lunch. For the operators being asked to leave by November, that is cold comfort. Fourteen months of notice, and a hunt for replacement space in a district where large-format F&B and fitness units are not sitting empty.

Sources: Mothership, The Straits Times, URA.