SINGAPORE — With a new children's play park at Cineleisure, Ms Emily Wu, 38, made a trip to the mall that she had not visited frequently since she was a teenager for her eight-year-old son's playdate.

"It's a yearly tradition to have a playdate with his cousins on the last day of the year, so since (Skypark by Kiztopia) just opened, we figured we would come here," Ms Wu, a banker, told TODAY.

Once a bustling mall on the Orchard Road belt popular among teens in the 2000s, Cineleisure has suffered what some describe as a "retail apocalypse" in recent years, with dwindling footfall and declining popularity shuttering several tenants.

It now hopes that a slew of new tenants will put an end to that. 

They include several offerings for children — such as indoor play park Skypark by Kiztopia and gymnastics studio Karpenko Gymnastics Academy (KGA). There is also a new marital arts gym and a cinema operated by Golden Village and The Projector.

Cineleisure said that the mall was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the closure of *Scape, a youth hangout spot located next to it.

In its heyday, Cineleisure was an attraction for young people in the early 2000s, with a good mix of streetwear, accessories and food-and-beverage (F&B) shops.

Hoping to regain its popularity, several new retail stores such as Russian indoor playground operator Amazing Castle opened in Cineleisure, but they, too, eventually shuttered.

"Post-pandemic, we have since implemented a strategic shift of tenant mix — to be the ‘gourmetainment’ hub on Orchard Road, providing quality entertainment and dining experiences to our patrons," said Cineleisure.

Beyond the new retail stores, it also has pop-up tenants to attract customers. Currently, a pop-up store featuring K-pop boy band BTS, called "Space of BTS", is located on the mall's second floor.

These stores are attracting shoppers, but the mall was still quieter than the rest of the Orchard Road shopping belt when TODAY visited on Sunday (Dec 31). 

Some tenants said the new retail focus has paid off, but several shoppers said more needs to be done for them to visit the mall frequently, or stay within the premises longer.

GAINING CROWDS 

For gym-goers Mr Ben Wright, 33, and Mrs Tini Wright, 32, the mall's third floor is a haven for them.

With several gyms together, the married couple can go for their HIIT workouts, boxing and spin classes.

"A big problem is that many people walk along Orchard Road, and they don't see the need to deviate and turn towards Cineleisure," said Mr Wright, a software engineer, on the lack of crowds in the mall.

Several businesses said that they have seen more visitors in Cineleisure as the mall switches its tenant strategy.

Mr Timothy Felix, founder of Active Fitness, said the mall's third floor has been "pretty busy" since it opened its boxing studio Sugar Boxing in 2021.

"Cineleisure had a vision of creating a fitness floor, where multiple fitness concepts would be housed and the idea was to attract a curated customer base of people looking to get their fitness fix," said Mr Felix.

"We loved the idea and we decided this would be an ideal location for Sugar Boxing."

But while the third and ninth floor where trampoline park Bounce is was crowded, the rest was like a "retail apocalypse", he said, up till Cineleisure introduced more lifestyle offerings in 2023.

A spokesperson for spin class Revolution Singapore said another attraction of Cineleisure is that despite its central location, foot traffic is not as "overwhelming for our riders going for classes" as other malls along Orchard Road.

Also located on the third floor, Revolution said: "It's great to have an entire floor of health and fitness enthusiasts interacting with each other.

"Our hope is that Cineleisure continues to evolve in pursuing a variety of tenants so that the eclectic energy becomes more distinctive and also its trademark."

Mr Liam Mescall, chief executive officer of KGA, said that the central location with the children and fitness-centric companies made the mall attractive for the company to move in.

"⁠There is fantastic energy about the building, lots of people moving to and fro. We like to think we contribute as many parents will drop their kids for class and go to workout downstairs or grab a coffee or food in other tenants," he said.

As for tufting studio WeTuft, the growing trend among youths to create their own rugs has had some returning to the mall.

It collaborates with social media influencers to draw more attention to its studio and the mall.

It reiterated a point made by several other tenants — that Cineleisure should continue to bring in more lifestyle-esque tenants.

MORE F&B, FASHION SHOPS

Hoping to catch Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in cinemas as a family year-end activity, 55-year-old Mr Lee, who declined to share his full name, searched for tickets online.

"I saw the cinema at Cineleisure had tickets and figured since I haven't been here since I was younger, I would take my family here," he said, adding that the collaboration with The Projector intrigued him.

"It really is very quiet here for a public holiday. I think there needs to be more F&B options here."

On this point, Mr Felix suggested more healthy F&B outlets to match the slew of fitness gyms available in the mall.

Civil engineering undergraduate at Singapore Institute of Technology Aaron Ho said he hopes the mall could have more seats so that youths could hang out, which could make the place more vibrant.

Ms Wu, the banker, said: "If not for birthday parties for the children, I don't think we would come back as there are so many other malls in the Orchard area.

"Perhaps they could have more fashion shops — there used to be many that I could shop at when I was younger."

As for Ms Lu Qing Hui, a 41-year-old housewife, she feels that Cineleisure needs to be more focused on what kind of clientele it is targeting.

"It's hard to say what they should have when it's hard to tell who they are targeting. Now there are a bunch of gyms, some activities for children, a few food outlets and a cinema, so it's really not clear," she said.

On the other hand, Ms Lu's 11-year-old daughter Phailin Soon has a clear idea of what she wants to see there: "A Timezone (arcade)."