White Sands Shopping Mall, Singapore

White Sands Shopping Mall (Chinese: 白沙购物中心), also known as White Sands, is a 5-storey shopping mall in Pasir Ris, Singapore. It is located near Pasir Ris MRT station and Pasir Ris Bus Interchange and features a basement with retail outlets and two additional floors of basement carparks.

White Sands
White Sands in 2006.
LocationPasir Ris, Singapore
Coordinates
Address1 Pasir Ris Central Street 3, Singapore 518457
Opening dateJanuary 1997 (1997-01)
ManagementAsiaMalls Management Pte Ltd
OwnerARMF (WhiteSands) Pte. Ltd.
No. of stores and services125
No. of anchor tenants6
Total retail floor area148,447 square feet (13,791.2 m2)
No. of floors8
Parking191 lots
Public transit access EW1  CR5   CP1  Pasir Ris
Websitewww.whitesands.com.sg

The mall is a gathering spot for conscripted soldiers due to the mall's close proximity to Pasir Ris Bus Interchange, the location at which they are dropped off from the army camp on Pulau Tekong.[1][2]

History

White Sands was developed by OCBC Properties Pte Ltd and was the first major mall to be opened in Pasir Ris in early 1997. Like a typical suburban mall at the time, it had an Eng Wah cinema, a Timezone arcade (the largest in Singapore as of that point), a food court, a John Little department store, a Courts store, a Popular bookstore, the local post office, an NTUC FairPrice supermarket and more than 60 specialty stores.

In 1999, due to declining patronage, the cinema and arcade were closed and were replaced by retail outlets and the Pasir Ris Public Library respectively. The mall was sold to ARMF Pte Ltd in 2004.

The mall did not undergo any major renovations until 2007, when more stores were opened and its facade was repainted blue. John Little was replaced by several smaller stores,[3] and the food court was relocated to the 3rd floor, taking up the space initially occupied by Courts. The library on the 4th floor was retained as it served the local residents. The entire carpark at Basement 1 was converted to retail space and travelators were installed to link it to Basement 2 and 3 carparks.

The mall went through another round of renovations in 2014 and reopened in May 2016,[4] with a new tenant mix, a new interior layout and an enhanced blue facade.[5][6] The library was revamped,[7] the local post office was relocated to level 5, and the bookstore relocated to level 4. Currently, its main tenants are McDonald's, NTUC FairPrice, Pasir Ris Public Library and Koufu Food Court.

In 2017, the mall experienced two escalator incidents. The first occurred in January when part of the escalator collapsed after a couple with a baby in a stoller stepped off the escalator.[8] The second occurred in August when a four-year-old girl got injured when her foot got trapped in the steps.[9]

In 2018, White Sands became one of 6 shopping malls in the country to accept UnionPay QR code payments in a move towards Singapore's goal of becoming a cashless society.[10]

References
  1. Lin, Melissa (27 Sep 2013). "Burger King gives out 1,000 burgers to soldiers in uniform". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  2. "Out of army supplies? Get them from a vending machine as part of trial". The Straits Times. 19 Feb 2017. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  3. Leow, Annabeth (7 Nov 2016). "John Little to close final outlet at Plaza Singapura: 174 years of history at a glance". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  4. "Mall operator banks on revamps to cope with evolving landscape". TODAYonline. 1 May 2016. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  5. "Late-night works at Pasir Ris mall rile residents". The Straits Times. 14 Sep 2015. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  6. Kaur, Gurveen (8 Jan 2016). "Suburban mall crawl". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  7. Tan, Jamie (28 Nov 2015). "Revamped Pasir Ris Public Library opens". Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  8. Koh, Fabian (22 Jan 2017). "Narrow escape for couple with baby stroller after escalator step buckles at White Sands mall". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  9. Lam, Lydia (12 Aug 2017). "BCA suspends operation of escalator at White Sands mall after 4-year-old's foot is trapped". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  10. "UnionPay QR code payments to be launched across all 6 AsiaMalls shopping centres in 2018". The Straits Times. 27 Nov 2017. Retrieved 2018-07-29.


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