THE MANAGEMENT OF MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENTS

Abstract

Good management of a development is important so that occupants can feel comfortable and secured in the complex. There are more developments in Singapore consisting of two or more user components. These developments are known as mixed-use developments and can be a combination of office or retail and residential components or office and hotel components or hotel and residential components in one development. With higher expectations and needs, occupants of a development expect more on the management of the place they live, work or do their business. The objective of this dissertation is to identify problems faced in the property management aspect of mixed-use developments at Sunshine Plaza, City Plaza and Queensway shopping centre. Problems faced will be related to the major areas of property management such as design and access entrance of individual user component, allocation of carparking lots, management and maintenance plans, security services, financial management, human resource management and conflicts faced between office, retail and residential user components. Sunshine Plaza, City Plaza and Queensway shopping centre are chosen for this research as they are located at the northern, eastern and western part of Singapore. The user components consist of office, retail and residential components. This gives a more representative and accurate analysis on the management of mixed-use developments only for office, retail and residential components and not other types of mixed-use developments. The methodology adopted in this analysis is the collection of data through interviews with the management of the three selected nixed-use developments. This is the most appropriate method for this study as direct information can be obtained. The results showed that very often, occupants from the residential components complained to the management about poor performance of security guards. As for the retail component, the retailers complained about the unfair allocation of carpark lots. The residential components are each entitled to a carpark lot whereas the retailers have to pay for season parking. Only Sunshine Plaza has office component whereas City Plaza and Queensway shopping centre comprises of only retail and residential components. The interview results showed that the occupants from the office component of Sunshine Plaza feedback about the standard of cleanliness to their office block. The occupants complained that the standard of cleanliness is not as high as compared to the retail and residential component. Therefore, the results proved that different user components have different needs and requirements as regards to the management of mixed use developments. Main problems faced by the occupants such as poor performance of security guards and conflicts among different user components will be dealt with. Possible solutions adopted by the various management were examined and recommendations to improve the management of the mixed-use developments are proposed to assist the current and future management of similar developments facing the same problems. Recommendation from the author for further improvements will also be discussed in this study.