Liat Towers is a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

and mixed-use complex in

Orchard Road Orchard Road, often known colloquially as simply Orchard, is a major –long road in the Central Area of Singapore. Known as a famous tourist attraction, it is an upscale shopping area of Singapore, with numerous internationally renowned depa ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. It has 21 floors with offices,

foodservice The foodservice (US English) or catering (British English) industry includes the businesses, institutions, and companies which prepare meals outside the home. It includes restaurants, school and hospital cafeterias, catering operations, and many ...

outlets, retail stores and

embassies A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

. It is located close to

Orchard MRT station Orchard MRT station is an underground Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) interchange station on the North South (NSL) and Thomson–East Coast (TEL) lines, located on the boundaries of the Orchard and River Valley planning areas of Singapore. Being ...

. The building was first constructed in 1965, before it was redeveloped into its current state in 1979.

History

Liat Towers first opened in September 1965, one of the first few malls to make its mark on Orchard Road. In 1977, a redevelopment was announced, which was completed in 1979.

First outlet milestones

McDonald's

It was the location of

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

first outlet in Singapore, which opened on 20 October 1979. It was also itself the first ever

outlet in a

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

n country.

Starbucks

It was also the location of

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...

' first outlet in Singapore, opening in December 1996. Similarly to McDonald's, it was the first ever Starbucks outlet in a Southeast Asian country. It was also the coffeehouse chain's 2nd ever overseas outlet outside of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, a time whereby Starbucks was not yet a household name. Starbucks still exists at Liat Towers, and its outlet was renovated in 2019.

Description

The stores in the tower range from in floor area. Some tenant retailers include

Massimo Dutti Massimo Dutti () is a Spanish fast fashion clothing retailer specializing in cashmere and wool products, established in 1985 and owned by Spanish multinational company Inditex. Overview Despite the Italian name, "Massimo Dutti" is not a fash ...

, Zara and

Hermes Hermes (; grc-gre, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travellers, thieves, merchants, and orato ...

. It has a car park, and is in the middle of the prestigious Orchard shopping district of

. The tower is also close by to other retail and service buildings in the city, such as several

hotels A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

, the most prominent example being the

Mandarin Orchard Singapore The Hilton Singapore Orchard is a 1080-room five-star hotel located at 333 Orchard Road in Singapore. History The hotel opened in 1971 as The Mandarin Singapore, occupying a single 36-storey block facing Orchard Road. Designed by Cyrus Casper ...

, along with several well-known malls such as

Ngee Ann City Ngee Ann City is a shopping and commercial centre located on Orchard Road, Singapore. The S$520 million building was officially opened on 21 September 1993 by then Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong. Ngee Ann City currently houses the High ...

Wisma Atria Wisma Atria is an established shopping mall on Orchard Road in Singapore. The centre, which opened on 13 November 1986, is directly linked underground to Orchard MRT station and neighbouring centres. Wisma Atria has five levels of shopping w ...

ION Orchard ION Orchard (pronounced as I-On), formerly known as the Orchard Turn Development or Orchard Turn Site, is a shopping mall in Singapore, next to Orchard MRT station. It is the retail component of an integrated retail and residential development ...

and Hilton Singapore. Some of the

restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...

s in Liat Towers include

Shake Shack Shake Shack is an American fast casual restaurant chain based in New York City. It started out as a hot dog cart inside Madison Square Park in 2001, and its popularity steadily grew. In 2004, it received a permit to open a permanent kiosk with ...

, which occupies the same spot where Singapore's first McDonald's once stood.

Gallery

File:Zarasg.JPG, Zara, one of the tenants near the entrance of the tower File:Liat Towers 2.JPG, The office tower

Notes

References

{{commons, Liat Towers Shopping malls in Singapore Orchard Road