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Around 10 Tanjong Pagar Plaza massage and spa businesses shut as push for refresh continues
- Tanjong Pagar Plaza saw about 10 massage establishments close amid a crackdown on vice, with arrests made and some businesses found operating without valid licences.
- MP Foo Cexiang aims to replace illicit businesses with those that can better serve residents, citing concerns from parents about pre-schools near these establishments.
- Residents desire more family restaurants, enrichment centres and hobby shops, with surveys shared to encourage new shops aligning with community needs.
This came after enforcement operations carried out at massage establishments there resulted in arrests and some businesses being found without valid licences.
While the 10 or so establishments closed following police checks, Tanjong Pagar GRC MP Foo Cexiang said they could have shut for several reasons, including but not limited to enforcement action.
Mr Foo had in September
vowed to push for a refresh of the plaza
amid concerns over vice activities at some massage and beauty parlours there, saying then that the police would increase checks. He oversees the Tanjong Pagar-Tiong Bahru ward, where the Housing Board commercial and residential development is located.
With several pre-schools in the plaza, Mr Foo noted that some parents are “uneasy whenever their children go past these shops”.
He said that since enforcement was stepped up, several establishments that had offered massage and related services “are now in the midst of a transition”.
Mr Foo told The Straits Times on Dec 31 that of these, two have found new occupants – a blind massage services outlet, which moved from another unit, and music school Sol Academy, which was officially opened on Jan 3.
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Another seven units are currently vacant.Noting that some massage establishments offer legitimate services and are patronised by residents, Mr Foo said his intention was not to rid the plaza entirely of such entities, but to ideally have the illegitimate ones replaced with shops that can better serve residents.
Responding to queries, the police said that since multiple enforcement operations at massage establishments were carried out from September, 13 women have been arrested for various offences under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act and the Women’s Charter.
Eight massage establishments were also found to be operating without valid licences. Investigations into the 13 women and operators of the eight establishments are under way, added the police.
Mr Foo said that of the breaches at the eight establishments, five were found in September, two in October and the last in November.
Tanjong Pagar Plaza was completed in phases in the 1970s, with the first phase comprising five residential blocks that sit atop a two-storey commercial podium. The second phase has two blocks on a two-storey commercial podium.
Both podiums are separated by a market and food centre.
Checks by ST on Jan 2 showed that across the approximately 80 businesses on the second floor of both podiums, about 40 per cent offered massage and beauty-related services, such as nail salons.
On the first floor, about a fifth of the nearly 80 businesses offered such services, while other retail and dining options include a FairPrice supermarket, a 7-Eleven convenience store and coffee shops.
The interior of a vacant unit in Tanjong Pagar Plaza.
ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
Shopkeepers and residents told ST on Jan 2 that they noticed several massage establishments had closed in recent months, while Mr Foo said several shopkeepers told him that they had seen the police raid at least half of the units that shut down.
Mr Thomas Wong, who has owned a massage business on the first floor for five years, said that over the past few months, he has seen several massage shops in the plaza being cleared.
Mr Wong, who owns Le Kaki Wellness, an open-concept massage parlour without private rooms and where the shop’s entire space can be seen through glass panels from the shopfront, noted that illicit services are difficult to stamp out entirely, especially in shops with partitioned rooms.
The 44-year-old said it is challenging to police what goes on behind the closed doors of these rooms.
Even if massage shop owners and therapists are above board, there could be instances of customers requesting illicit services. This has happened even at his open-concept parlour, he added.
In an update in November 2025, Mr Foo said that the police had increased checks on massage units in Tanjong Pagar Plaza, adding that there was noticeably less soliciting activity.
Ms Siti Nur Hajar, a senior teacher at Mulberry Learning, a child and infant care centre on the plaza’s second floor, noted that the father of a student enrolled at the school said he had been subject to such soliciting activity in 2025.
He was one of two parents who gave feedback to the centre about the massage parlours, said Ms Siti, 38.
A vacant unit in Tanjong Pagar Plaza that has yet to be cleared out.
ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO
Residents told ST they would appreciate more retail options if new businesses were to replace the massage establishments that have exited.
A 35-year-old father of a toddler, who gave his name only as Benjamin, said that it was not ideal having so many massage parlours, especially with young children around.
The Tanjong Pagar resident, who works in banking, said he hopes for more clothing, craft and food-and-beverage shops.
Mr Foo said in September that refreshing Tanjong Pagar Plaza’s offerings would take several years. The authorities, he noted, have limited control over the plaza’s retail mix as many of the shops were sold on 80-year leases in the 1990s, and tenants are determined largely by market forces.
He said on Dec 31 that to “provide more information to the market”, the area’s Residents’ Network surveyed 100 households on the types of businesses they wanted to see more of.
Coming out on top were family restaurants, cafes and fast-food establishments, as well as enrichment centres and hobby shops, said Mr Foo.
Sol Academy’s director, Mr Zaine Lau, 31, said he chose to set up the music school in the plaza as it is in the heart of Singapore. He also saw an opportunity to bring younger music lovers into the estate, to enliven it and encourage intergenerational bonding.
Mr Foo has shared the survey results with the plaza’s traders’ association, in the hope that business owners can tap their networks to bring in new shops that align with residents’ needs.
Going forward, he also hopes to use the plaza’s atrium for community events more frequently.
Madam Vanessa Goh, 67, who has run watch and key shop Kai Joo at the plaza with her husband for about 45 years, said she looks forward to such initiatives bearing fruit.
She said more community events will keep the plaza’s older residents active, adding that having more retail tenants would give people a reason to stay in the plaza longer to shop. It will also increase footfall for businesses there.
