Singapore will soon get its first heritage boutique hotel in a park when Hotel Fort Canning soft opens in August, in time for the Singtel Singapore Formula One Grand Prix.

There's a lot of firsts involved and Managing Director Mr Oh Chee Eng is conscious of the attention that will be given to the 86-room property when it opens.

Mr Oh said a lot of thought had gone into the redevelopment of the site atop Fort Canning Park, which has a history dating back 700 years, making it Singapore's oldest park.

A rich heritage

According to the National Parks website, Fort Canning Hill was once known as "Forbidden Hill". "This is because Malays in the 19th century believed that it was the seat of royalty for rulers of Temasek (or " Sea Town", an old name for Singapore) in the 1300s. Later, Singapore's colonial leaders made their residences there, and the hill became a military base during the Second World War. Today, ancient relics dating back to the 14th century have been unearthed and the Fort Gate, a remnant of the fortress built in the 1860s, is a reminder of Singapore's colonial past."

Mr Oh is conscious of this rich heritage and says the redevelopment of the hotel is in line with strict conservation guidelines laid down by the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

The hotel, with rooms ranging from 36-42sqm, is being designed by DP Architects (DPA), whose name is behind several of Singapore's iconic buildings such as Esplanade - Theatres On the Bay, Bugis Junction and VivoCity.

"It's been a tough exercise, planning and building the hotel, but we want to be fussy about it," said General Manager Mr Anthony O'Neill. "We have built the storyline into the hotel."

The hotel will have a spa operated by Thai brand Hann & Thann as well as a signature Sicilan restaurant.

A $60 million redevelopment

Planning for the hotel has taken at least two years and Mr Oh, whose company also runs The Legends at Fort Canning, billed as the only town club in Singapore, said about S$60 million was being invested into its redevelopment.

The company had played with several ideas when it wanted to redevelop the club. Mr Oh said that demand had dropped for clubs in Singapore. "There are condominiums that now have better facilities than most clubs," he said.

"The STB came to us as well as several parties, asking us to consider a hotel. They said we had such a great location, we should look at a hotel.

"We looked at the market and thought it was a good idea to add a hotel to the site. We finally got the approval to go ahead and here we are."

Fort Canning club to remain

The club will still be kept but Mr Oh said membership would now be limited to 3,000. It currently has about 1,500 members and originally, as a club, it was allowed to sell to 10,000 members.

"We've always had a problem that because of the open nature of the park - and under National Parks guidelines, all food & beverage outlets must be open to everyone - there was always cross-over of traffic between the club and the park. But now we have re-organised the whole space and we will manage it and ensure that members have the private space, as well as our hotel guests."

A boutique feel

This marks Mr Oh's first venture into hotels. "I reckon it can't be that hard, right? As a club, we ran it like a hotel and were looking after guests and feeding them. We had banquets and restaurants. Now we just add the rooms and of all these, rooms must be the easiest to manage."

Mr Oh said he decided to cap the number of rooms at 86 to still give it a boutique, exclusive feel. "When we started talking to major hotel brands, to see if they would manage our hotel, they said we were too small for them."

Partnership with WORLDHOTELS

And so Mr Oh has signed up with WORLDHOTELS, a global marketing and reservations organisation, whose Asia Pacific office is in Singapore. Hotel Fort Canning is WORLDHOTELS' fourth property in Singapore, after Goodwood Park Hotel, Carlton Hotel and York Hotel.

Rates will be set with WORLDHOTELS' guidance but they are expected to be in the deluxe category.

Creating something special with a family atmosphere

He knows the challenge though is in the delivery of the customer experience when the hotel opens. "We want it to be a personalized, exclusive experience," he said. "I have stayed in many boutique hotels and I have noticed that they are run like a family - there's a lot of multi-tasking, very different from a Hyatt or a Marriott.

"Everyone is everyone and everyone does everything in a boutique hotel," he said.

"We know we have a unique opportunity to create something special - it's not often you find a charming hotel in a park in the middle of a city."