First-Ever Integrated Space for Child Care, Healthcare and Urban Farming at the Former Henderson Secondary School

1.       The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is transforming the site of the former Henderson Secondary School at 100 Henderson Road for adaptive reuse into the first-ever integrated space comprising a child care centre; a nursing home and dialysis centre; and an urban farm within a State property.

2.       This is a collaborative effort with the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA), the Ministry of Health (MOH), and the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) to integrate the three facilities within a single site to cater to the needs of the community living in the area.

3.       The integrated site will allow users of the three facilities to curate programmes and encourage interaction and participation in the activities organised for one another, and the neighbouring community. To improve the connectivity of the re-parcelled site, SLA has provided for a road access for each of the three facilities. The location and the parcellation of the site are provided in Annex A.

4.       “As the custodian of State properties, SLA strives to optimise available sites including vacant schools in new ways that will benefit the community. We are working towards providing a wide range of use to optimise State properties and to provide for the changing environmental needs. We see opportunities for this site to be converted into different uses that can complement and meet the needs of the community in the area,” said Yap Eai-Sy, Deputy Director of Business Planning and Development, SLA.

Child Care Centre

5.       The child care centre at this site will occupy a 1,800 sqm two-storey block, and will be run by an anchor operator, PAP Community Foundation (PCF). It will create around 250 new affordable, quality preschool places by end-2019 for young families in the vicinity. At this retrofitted premises, the centre will have opportunities to develop spaces for outdoor learning and play, as well as engage in cross-programming with the nursing home and urban farm.

6.       In the first half of 2019, parents can register for the child care centre through ECDA’s online Registration Management System, which can be accessed via www.ecda.gov.sg/Parents. They can also do so using the Moments of Life (Families) mobile application, which can be downloaded from the respective Apple and Android app stores.

Nursing Home and Dialysis Centre

7.       MOH plans to convert part of the site into a nursing home and a dialysis centre, to meet the demand for eldercare and dialysis services within the region. The co-location of inter-generational and therapeutic spaces under one roof will contribute to the quality of care for seniors.

Urban Farm

8.       SLA will be launching a Price-Quality tender with AVA for urban farming use. Besides farming, the site can also be used to test-bed innovative technologies for urban farming. With its proximity to the community, the urban farm will also raise awareness on how food is grown, as well as promote local produce.

9.       Tenderers will be assessed on their proposals to see how best they can involve the community and how their operations can be more socially inclusive. The successful tenderer will be required to curate activities and programmes for the child care centre, nursing home and the community within the area. The Price-Quality Tender will allow for more holistic assessment of bids with 50% of the overall score for the bid price and 50% for the quality of the concept. The quality component of the proposed concept will be a key consideration in our assessment for the tender award.

10.      The tender will open on 30 October 2018, Tuesday. Tenderers interested to develop and operate the urban farm may access the following website for more information on the tender: SPIO.