Re: What happened to the original tenants of 112 Katong?
The only place left untouched is the Katong Shopping Centre.. I saw plenty of maid agencies there. Must be 6+ maid agencies there
There are so many malls being built. I visited the new mall next to the Paya Lebar MRT station. I think it's called Paya Lebar Square. It's so new that the tenants are in the process of moving in.
Katong Shopping Center tenants (most famous of whom are Teo Heng (Karaoke) and his brother Teo Huat (photocopy), and of course, all the maid agencies, some tuition centers and even a church inside... not sure if the bowling alley is still operational on the higher floors that require an elevator to access) are waiting and hoping for a massive en bloc sale to a developer that wants to demolish and build a new condo or mall there, since a new MRT is planned for the Katong / Marine Parade area in the future.
The Paya Lebar / Tanjong Katong new mall is formally/officially called 1KM (informally/unofficially shorthand for 1 Knowledge Mall (so says the owner), since there are a lot of enrichment / tuition center tenants).
Paradise Group has two of their restaurants in there, "ParaThai" and "ParadiseDynasty", side by side. "PapaRich" restaurant, as well as Mark Lee's "Old Town White Coffee" (both similar in food and pricing), and George Kwek's "Toastbox + BreadTalk" all have outlets in there. Also present is the Malaysian "The Chicken Rice Shop", the Hong Kong "Streats" café, and the Taiwanese "Milk & Honey" gelato outlet. And of course, the ubiquitous "Starbucks".
There is a "Popular bookstore" as well as a "Harvey Norman" on the upper floors as well. A small neighbourhood or suburban mall, comparable to Katong 112 in size (but Katong 112's huge advantage over all the nearby larger malls, including Parkway, Bedok Mall + Bedok Point, is that it has a "Golden Village" cinema).