Instead of flitting from club to club, most people prefer sticking to one venue.
“Nightlife has changed,” adds Yeo, who notes that several events have contributed to this shift, starting with the Little India riots in December 2013. The riots led to stricter alcohol laws, including the prohibition of the consumption of liquor in public places from 10.30pm to 7am, in 2015. This alone changed the habits of clubbers, who used to pre-drink at Clarke Quay or along the bridge linking Jiak Kim Street to Robertson Quay outside Zouk’s former location at Jiak Kim.
The post-riot restrictions also introduced staggered closing times. Depending on their licence, some bars were allowed to operate until 4am on alternate weekends and 3am on others. This naturally put a damper on plans, observes Yeo, who adds that partygoers wouldn’t be asking if it was a “3am day or a 4am day”.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the circuit breaker measures introduced in 2020 did not help either.
See also: Kelvin Fong takes the helm of PropNex as CEO, Ismail Gafoor remains executive chairman
But even after the restrictions were lifted, consumer preferences changed. “People now like to drink less,” says Yeo, citing health considerations in addition to lifestyle changes. “People want alcohol-free beer. For a long [time], Singapore did not have a distributor for alcohol-free Guinness. Now they are bringing [it in].”
Rising costs are another factor. In The Straits Times article dated Jan 31, interviewees attributed the declining nightlife scene to the regulatory changes and affordability.
In the past, pre-drinking at Clarke Quay meant buying liquor by the bottle from one of the five convenience stores in the area, which once raked in $2.5 million a month in liquor sales. “You multiply [that] by four, and that’s lost income for Clarke Quay bar tenants. That was taken away during post-Little India and post-Covid.”
See also: Competition from Johor
Late-night travel has also gotten more expensive, says Yeo. Previously, taxis implemented a 50% surcharge on the metered fares for rides between 12am and 6am. SMRT’s Night Rider bus services, which operated from 11.30pm to 2am on Fridays, Saturdays and the eve of public holidays, were discontinued as a result of Covid-19 in June 2022. Today, partygoers will have to contend with dynamic or surge pricing from private hire vehicles such as Grab.
The rise of dating apps like Tinder has reduced the need to meet new people in clubs, while the trend of working from home , which used to see the office crowd spilling out of offices and into clubs, is also a contributing factor, Yeo adds.
Still, Zouk remains committed to Clarke Quay. The club is eager to renew its contract with the space and is committed to enhancing the customer experience to attract new customers. “They still have confidence because they’re still able to generate a new crowd,” says Yeo “Certainly, there was a dislocation, because that crowd of people who came of age during Covid-19 didn’t have that clubbing experience. And I think these things will improve as things like work from home normalise … [giving] an added barrier to coming out.”
“So all these are quite behavioural that we are trying to adapt to as well,” he adds.
Night and day destination
While Yeo and his team are now working with the authorities to revive the “buzz”, the group’s chief strategy officer plans to transform Clarke Quay into a day-and-night destination with more family-friendly and lifestyle-focused offerings during the day.
Yeo explains that atmosphere is defined by the number of people per square metre. And if fewer people are partying, the space can either be reduced, or planners can increase footfall to the area.
To stay ahead of Singapore and the region’s corporate and economic trends, click here for Latest Section
In its new layout, the area nearest to the integrated development, Canninghill Piers, will feature tenants such as supermarket FairPrice Finest, music store Swee Lee, and Fort Canine Swimming Club, while the further end will continue to house Zouk and other watering holes.
The way the estate is planned is also to mitigate any complaints that may arise from Canninghill Piers residents about partygoers, a problem previously seen at Jiak Kim Street, where residents from the nearby condos complained about the litter and noise from Zouk’s customers.
“It’s beautiful. Every time I go to Swee Lee, I feel happy, because it tells us that if you get the right tenant, the right crowd will come,” says Yeo. “So we just need to keep working on that and work with our tenants and to have patience with us as Canninghill Piers comes up, because once these households move in, I think we will start to see that cluster, especially because Frasers is redeveloping at Robertson, so people will need to flow down.”
For Yeo, staying ahead means remaining close to the ground. “I’m a consumer, I’m quite ‘kaypoh’, so I like to find out business models. In China, I would meet with tenants regularly to understand their business models. You have to start from them … They know exactly what’s happening … and they see consumerism from the ground up.”
Now that he’s back in Singapore, Yeo also applies this practice by talking to consumers and retailers, pointing out that he’s a consumer as well.
Whether Clarke Quay’s crowd remains the same or not, one thing is clear: CLI intends to put a lot of effort into the area. And as the market and society continue to shift, so too must the spaces that once defined Singapore’s party scene.
