Once sleazy Orchard Towers transformed as church, new restaurants and businesses move in

If the walls of Orchard Towers could talk, they would tell tales of mayhem, madams and murder.

Not for nothing was the development, at the corner of Orchard and Claymore roads, known for its risque clubs and massage parlours.

Today though, the two 18-storey blocks, with retail and office space and 58 apartments, look forlorn, with many empty shop spaces on those once-buzzing four floors.

Some restaurants closed in a hurry, leaving behind empty wine bottles and upturned furniture.

The exodus began in 2023, when the girlie bars and risque clubs closed, after the Government announced in 2022 that it would stop renewing and granting public entertainment licences beyond May 2023.

But there are many signs of new life. Restaurants and businesses are setting up shop there, drawn by reasonable rents, say owners.

A 24-hour foodcourt, 400 Brew Kopi, opened in August at the basement of the front block. There is a Kopitiam on the ground floor.

At the rear block, enrichment centre Math Vision is taking up space on the eighth floor.

The biggest change, however, is expected to come when Cornerstone Community Church opens there. It bought up 19,000 sq ft of the fourth floor in the front block, and is expected to start services in December 2025, drawing hundreds of churchgoers to the development.

Infamous past

That is quite a change for Orchard Towers. Sex workers used to prowl the perimeter of the buildings for customers, undeterred by, and returning in full force after, police raids.

The place was even voted the most notorious pick-up joint in South-east Asia by the World Sex Guide website in 2002.

Fights broke out routinely, sometimes with fatal consequences. In 2019, a 33-year-old man died after being stabbed during a fight in the building. The killer, Tan Sen Yang, was sentenced to life imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane in April 2024.

In 2016, a French national died after he was attacked by two men. His assailants were later jailed and caned.

Then there was the infamous case of dead bodies in a car. In 2002, Briton Michael McCrea, a financial adviser, murdered two people - his Singaporean driver Kho Nai Guan and the driver's girlfriend Lan Ya Ming, a Chinese national.

He dumped their bodies in a car which he abandoned on the seventh-floor carpark at Orchard Towers. He was jailed for 24 years in 2006.

Clubs at Orchard Towers such as Top Ten, Top 5, Ipanema and Crazy Horse drew crowds. Not all the customers were louche either.

In the early 2000s, curious PMEBs (professionals, managers, executives and businessmen) drawn by the underground vibe and kitschy appeal of the clubs there, as well as the cheap and good Thai food in small restaurants, ventured into Orchard Towers.

Setting up church

Cornerstone Community Church co-founder Yang Tuck Yoong tells The Straits Times that the construction crew had to clear up beer bottles and disco balls, and dismantle risque murals when work began.

The church bought the fourth-floor space, once occupied by Top 5 and Crazy Horse, in January 2025 for about $54 million.

Pastor Yang, 65, says it is also buying and renting units on other floors for a thrift shop, Sunday school classes, meeting rooms and other uses.

Setting up in Orchard Towers will allow the church to grow a second, permanent home. Since 1997, it has been in Odeon Katong in East Coast Road, which used to house karaoke clubs, pubs and massage parlours.

He has seen how the church and churchgoers have transformed the place. Those businesses have been replaced by buzzy cafes, restaurants and shops, with nary a vacant unit to be had.

Pastor Yang says: "We want to be good neighbours. We've hundreds of people coming in. Business goes up. Families and children come in. The whole atmosphere changes. This used to be a very dingy, seedy place.

"Orchard Towers was probably the most infamous building in Singapore. Sailors, businessmen who want paid sex would go there. I'm glad to be part of the transformation."

The church has spent about $5 million transforming the fourth-floor space at Orchard Towers into a church, and is putting in another $3 million for audio and visual equipment and design.

Test runs of the facilities are expected to start in November 2025, with Sunday services to begin a month later.

There is room for 500 churchgoers at each service at Orchard Towers, and the plan is to offer two services on Sundays for a start. In 2026, that will increase to four services every weekend.

Change is in the air

Business owners at Orchard Towers are glad the development is shedding its sleazy image, although some are not sure if the church will bring more business.

Mr Danny Khemlani, 56, who owns Indulge Convenience Store in the basement, moved to Orchard Towers from Tanglin Shopping Centre two years ago.

He stocks all manner of sundries, and laments there have been few takers for the condoms he stocks, after the seedy bars closed.

Before he tweaks his product range, he wants to see what the building's new visitors want.

"Let the church come, and I'll see what they require," he says. "Business should get better."

Ms May Chen, 70, of May Tailor & Alteration on the second floor of the front block, has also seen a dip in business since the bars closed.

"There are no women from the bars and massage parlours," she says.

"I rely on my regulars. Everybody is saying that the church will bring new business. I don't know if that will happen."

On the fourth floor is Leisure Sports Tennis Pro Shop, which re-strings tennis rackets. Owner Melvin Tan, 49, moved to Orchard Towers about two years ago from Far East Shopping Centre.

He says of Orchard Towers: "We don't see much vice around. In the past six months, I've seen a larger lunch crowd here. For me, I'm glad that I'm able to find a space in Orchard Road for a reasonable rent."

The changes over the past couple of years have meant that Mr Justin Chan no longer has to put up with the aftermath of fights - broken glass and blood trails.

The 35-year-old helps his mother run Isle Eating House, an Orchard Towers fixture for 26 years. It caters to people who work in offices and hotels nearby, and closes at 7pm.

Mr Chan rarely ventured beyond the basement, where the eating house is located.

"I didn't dare to go up because there would be calls of 'lai lai lai, shuai ge'," he says, of the working girls calling out "come here, handsome" to him.

He says the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting change in spending patterns have resulted in a 10 to 20 per cent dip in business.

"There might be a bump in business," he says, of what the church might bring. "But this is a marathon, not a sprint."

Pastor Yang, however, thinks change will happen quickly.

"Two years from now, the place will be tremendously different," he says. "The spillover effects will happen very quickly."

Here are six restaurants to check out at Orchard Towers.

La Pasta: Always a full house

Where: 04-02 Open: 4pm to midnight (Mondays to Saturdays), closed on Sundays Info: Call 8938-7989; @lapastasg on Instagram

When Ms Sharin Lim and Mr Jordan Cheong opened La Pasta at Orchard Towers five months ago, they had planned to use the space as a ghost kitchen to continue the pasta delivery business they ran in High Street for two years.

They put in 14 seats "for extra income". The little restaurant has become so popular that it does seven to eight turns a night, with diners limited to a one-hour dining period. Bookings are essential.

Ms Lim, 29, says: "We moved here because the rent is reasonable. Business started getting better because of the location - right smack in the middle of Orchard Road."

Chef Cheong, 25, who has worked at restaurants such as Dolce Vita at Mandarin Oriental Singapore and Da Paolo at Dempsey, puts out about 20 pasta dishes, priced from $16.90 for a plate of Arrabiata. Portions are large - each plate has 170g of cooked pasta on it.

La Pasta's current bestsellers are Guanciale Carbonara ($28) and Rigatoni al Granchio ($32), featuring its housemade tubular pasta with crabmeat.

The chef says his prices are lower than those of his competitors. The crab pasta might cost upwards of $45 in some restaurants.

The restaurant owners say the fact that the church is moving into the building did not factor into their decision to move to Orchard Towers.

Currently, La Pasta opens only for dinner and is closed on Sundays. There are no plans to change that.

"We'll have to see the crowd," Ms Lim says. "We were not targeting churchgoers, we already have a pool of customers."

Kin Hoi Thai Food: Cockles and more

Where: B1-24 Open: 10am to 3.30pm, 4.30 to 9pm daily Info: @kinhoi.sg on Instagram

When Mr Daniel Teo was scouting locations for an offshoot of Kin Hoi, his Thai food business, he came to Orchard Towers to have a look.

"It was a dead town, especially the fourth floor," the 42-year-old says.

He saw a promising space in the basement, and went around to talk to other business owners in the building. That was when he found out that Cornerstone Community Church was moving in.

His restaurant, which seats 60, opened about two months ago and has a steady stream of customers. Signature offerings include cockles ($19) served with spicy and Thai Teochew sauces; gong gong or sea conch (from $8 for 500g); Boat Noodles ($7.80); Thai Chicken Rice (from $5.50 a plate); and Thai noodles and rice dishes.

Mr Teo also runs Kin Hoi in a Holland Close coffee shop, which started out in 2020 as a home-based business selling cockles.

The church, he is convinced, is bringing good change to the building.

"When the church comes in, the community grows," says the Christian, whose menu has Bible verses printed on it.

"This place will look bright and the stigma will be gone. I've had diners say they walked in here because they sensed the good vibes. Orchard Towers will be the new light of Orchard Road."

Cafe Blossom: Humans and pooches welcome

Where: 04-30 Open: 11.30am to 9pm (Tuesdays to Fridays), 11am to 9pm (weekends), closed on Mondays Info: 8928-5098 (WhatsApp); @cafeblossom24 on Instagram

Since it opened in February 2025, more than 100 dogs have turned up, owners in tow, at Cafe Blossom.

Owner Val Lim, 38, has their photographs up on a wall. Her gamble, that an air-conditioned pet-friendly cafe serving homespun Asian food would be well received, is slowly paying off.

She is candid about why she decided to open her 20-seat cafe at Orchard Towers.

"Rental is cheap," she says of the low four-figure sum she pays for her 380 sq ft cafe.

When she was scouting locations in 2024 for her business, after about a dozen years working in human resources, she came upon a dead town in Orchard Towers, with "a lot of empty units".

Still, with pet-friendly cafes getting popular in Singapore, she decided to take up a fourth-floor unit.

She and her mother, Ms May Toh, 65, do the cooking. On the menu are comfort Asian dishes such as Ginseng Chicken Soup with rice ($10.80) and Assam Fish with rice ($12.80), and non-Asian options like Grilled Salmon with fries or rice ($12.80) and Burger with fries or salad (from $10.80).

For dogs, she offers meals starting at $4.80 for chicken and mixed vegetables. Options include pork, beef and kangaroo meat.

"The crowd is really not here yet," she says. "But we keep it cosy, we take time to interact with customers, and they say this place feels like home. The menu also resonates with them because most pet-friendly cafes serve only Western food."

The cafe is named after her four-year-old shih tzu.

Church members have already popped in to say hello. "The church is driving a positive change," she says. "In the past six months, we've seen a few new tenants taking up space and renovating. The change is in progress, though it is slow."

Ibu Sarah Kitchen: Indonesian comfort food

Where: 02-21 Open: 11am to 10pm daily Info: @ibu.sarah.kitchen (Instagram)

Before she opened her 80-seat restaurant in April 2025, Ms Sarah Jacob ran an employment agency in Orchard Towers.

"I see a future in the building," the 48-year-old says. "It's in a touristy area and there are so many corporate offices around."

The restaurant's manager, Mr Gideon Agus, 47, says business at lunchtime and on weekends has been good.

"Dinner is more unpredictable, and we rely on reservations," he says.

The restaurant's Indonesian chef serves dishes such as Oxtail Soup ($15.80), Rendang Pariaman ($17.90), Beef Dendeng Batokok ($16.90) and Nasi Goreng Istimewa ($15.90), to the accompaniment of Golden Oldies music.

"Back then, if I looked around here, it was dark," Mr Agus says. "Now, there are more restaurants and the vibe is getting better."

Kukai Orchard: Japanese feast

Where: 01-20/20A Open: 11.30am to 2.30pm and 5.30pm to midnight (weekdays), 4pm to midnight (Saturdays), closed on Sundays Info: Call 8121-0911; @kukai.orchard on Instagram

At the height of its infamy, Orchard Towers was known for the rowdiness of its clubs and pubs. Cosy and relaxing, not so much.

But this is the vibe at Kukai Orchard, an 80-seat izakaya that opened on the ground floor of the front block in May 2025.

"There are many fine-dining restaurants in the area, but they do not stay open late," a spokesman says. "A lot of people come here for late-night dining. We focus on creating a relaxing izakaya vibe."

The restaurant stocks more than 40 kinds of sake, various expressions of Suntory's The Premium Malt's beers and even the low-alcohol Japanese beer, Hoppy. Shochu and Japanese whisky feature on the drinks menu too.

Kukai's food offerings pair well with drinks. On the extensive menu are dishes such as okonomiyaki (from $16), wasabi tsuntsun or pickled wasabi stems ($12), and grilled horse mackerel ($18).

The spokesman adds: "The food and beverage industry in Singapore is very competitive, but if we focus on good-quality food at reasonable prices and with great consistency, people will come. We want to have a chance for people to find us."

Bhoomi by Milind Sovani: Upscale Indian food

Where: 01-05 Open: Noon to 3pm, 6 to 11pm daily Info: Call 6225-4221; go to bhoomi.sg

No restaurateur in his right mind would have opened a fine-dining restaurant in the old Orchard Towers. And yet, the development has one of these establishments now.

Bhoomi by chef Milind Sovani, who was behind Michelin-starred The Song Of India, opened in July 2024, taking up a corner space on the ground floor and the floor above in the rear block.

The 61-year-old chef, who also has Masalaa Bar in East Coast Road, says: "I was looking to open a fine-dining restaurant, and we found out that Orchard Towers had been cleaned up. The space came up for discussion. It was in a bad state. There was no kitchen, and we had to build one, with an exhaust system, from scratch.

"But the location is fantastic."

He says it cost almost $1 million to transform the two floors, linked by a staircase in the restaurant, into a 90-seat fine-dining restaurant.

Diners are residents from upscale condominiums nearby, with tourists making up 20 per cent of the clientele.

"Seriously, since we opened, we have not been bothered by Orchard Towers' past reputation," he adds. "It's quite a drastic change, there's nothing left of the past. More footfall will be coming in when the church moves in."

Bhoomi, he says, means earth in Sanskrit and Hindi, and the food reflects his desire to take Indian food back to its roots.

Offerings include Indori Beetroot Tikki, Bhuttey Ka Kees ($22), beetroot patty with spiced sweetcorn crumble; Gilawat Kebab ($29); Koila Butter Chicken ($26); and Murg Thecha Kebab ($26).

Chef Milind says: "There are many restaurants here; Thevar, Firangi Superstar, they are doing fusion. I'm such a senior chef and I want to present authentic Indian cuisine. Every dish is a journey through India."