The Mandai eco-resort to be operated by Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts will be white labelled, among the new details revealed by the Singapore-based company and Mandai Park Holdings (MPH) yesterday.
Scheduled to open in Singapore’s new Mandai wildlife district in 2023, the 338-key Mandai resort is designed by local architectural firm Wow Architects.
The yet-unnamed hotel will be built on a 4.6ha site, which currently houses the Singapore Zoo’s back-of-house facilities.
There will be a mix of standard and family rooms within a sprawl of hotel buildings, as well as 24 elevated treehouses scattered across the treeline.
Every room will emulate a “perch” that is integrated into the surrounding vegetation, and the treehouses will resemble seedpods. Connecting the buildings is a network of elevated walkways, which also link to a rooftop garden and a pool.
Mike Barclay, group CEO of Mandai Park Holdings, announced that the resort will work with Mandai’s wildlife parks – the Singapore Zoo, the new Bird Park, the Night Safari and the River Safari – to create programmes and activities for resort guests.
These can include pre-opening experiences or back-of-house tours, he explained. Wow Architect’s managing director, Wong Chiu Man, added that other potential activities include farm-to-table foraging at the resort’s rooftop garden as part of a roster of F&B experiences.
Furthermore, this resort – which will be operated by Banyan Trees Hotels & Resorts – will be a white label property, shared Ho Kwon Ping, executive chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings.
He explained that the Mandai resort will offer “an unprecedented access to nature” that is distinct from the brand’s other properties, and will offer rooms starting from an “extremely affordable” price range.
The project is overseen by an environmental impact committee comprising academics and professionals, and has been designed to minimise disturbance to the vegetation of the site.
The decision to open a resort in Mandai comes after a 2014 survey by MPH, which found accommodation as the top request by the general public for the district, said Barclay.
Addressing the other developments in the Mandai wildlife district, Barclay said that the first public opening – by end-2019 – is the nature link bridge connecting Mandai Lake Road to the Central Catchment Nature Reserve.
Larger-scale openings will follow, namely the new Bird Park, the north section of the new Rainforest Park followed by its south section.
By 2020, the Mandai wildlife district will also welcome two new indoor attractions as well as refreshed attractions at the remaining wildlife parks.
The Mandai resort sits on the east of the district and will open as the final phase of the project.
