A colossal integrated resort development under construction in Singapore will add a whole new retail dimension to the city state already renowned for its retail offer.

An Australian-led team of is heading up the retail component of the Marina Bay Sands project - a $5+ billion dollar development uniting a luxury retail complex, three-tower hotel, convention facilities, theatres, a museum and Singapore's first casino.

The developer is a subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands, which owns, amongst other assets, the Venetian Casino Resort, the Palazzo and the Sands Expo in Las Vegas, and the Venetian Macao, Grand Canal Shoppes and Sands Hotel in Macao. The company won a global competitive pitch to build what will become a focal point on Singapore's waterfront and a whole unified destination in itself, set to boost Singapore's convention and tourist traffic even further.

Australian David Sylvester, VP Retail Development Asia, heads the leasing team. His career spans 22 years with Westfield and Lend Lease, as well as group GM of GIC overseeing the company's retail assets in Australia and China. He's worked with Sands for more than four years.

Despite overseeing numerous openings of new shopping centre complexes during his career, he confessed to Inside Retailing the Singapore project was one of the most exciting and motivating he's worked on.

The most visible feature are three identical towers soaring 55 storeys, or 200m into the sky. Running across the top of them will be a canoe-shaped 'SkyPark', a one hectare large garden with three swimming pools, relaxation zones, a public viewing deck and a restaurant with potentially the most stunning views in Singapore. It won't appeal to those who suffer vertigo though: the pools are designed to create the illusion that when you're in one, the water appears to be flowing off the side of the building - hold tight or you might just flow with it.

The three towers will house about 2500 hotel rooms ranging from luxury suites for high-rolling international gamblers through to more modest rooms for visitors to the 120,000sqm convention centre, which is capable of housing 2000 trade show booths and 45,000 delegates.

The casino, convention centre and shopping mall will be housed at the foot of the towers, along with two modern theatres, one for rotating Broadway or Bollywood shows, such as Disney's The Lion King, the other with a resident show yet to be announced. An arts and science museum shaped like a giant lotus flower will be constructed over the water at one end.

And then, of course, comes the retail: a 75,000sqm complex housing 300 stores and anchored by high-end retail brands, some not yet seen in Singapore.

The focal point of the retail offer will be a world-first Louis Vuitton Island flagship store. Visitors will enter the store via an underwater tunnel, emerging into a multi-level, round shop showcasing Louis Vuitton's goods between glass windows facing out beneath and above Marina Bay.

Retail Mecca

The week Inside Retailing saw the construction site, a circular hole was dammed in the bay and drained to allow construction to begin. When finished it will stand as a "striking glass and steel Crystal Pavilion island" according to Louis Vuitton.

Louis Vuitton's commitment on such a grand scale spurred a domino-like rush of signings by other luxury brands, including Hermes, which will create a range of products exclusively for the Sands store, a two-storey, 700sqm Chanel flagship and local retail franchise group FJ Benjamin, which will open stores bearing the brands of Guess, La Senza and its own Raoul.

Bally, Franck Muller, Gucci, Hublot, Hugo Boss, Max Mara, Miu Miu, Fendi, Burberry, Bulgari, Patek Philippe, Prada, Tiffany & Co, Yves St Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Breguet, Ferragamo, Omega, Cartier and Blancpain have also signed.

To date about 80 per cent of the retail space is leased, a rate Sylvester told Inside Retailing was impressive given the project's timing.

"It was not the best environment to be leasing a mall in late 2008, early 2009. We're pretty confident it will be 100 per cent leased by launch."

The opening will be in two stages, the first the luxury precinct surrounding the casino in the first quarter of 2010, the second around the convention part of the project in the following quarter.

Sylvester hopes some of the remaining space will be taken by Australian retailers.

"We're talking with a couple of Australian brands and we'd like to see more."

He wouldn't disclose the identity of those brands, other than to say they were positioned at the higher end of the scale, which suggests they are apparel brands.

Tenants on board to date are predominantly from Europe and Sylvester says they are aiming for as much as 25 per cent of the tenancy mix to be of new brands to the country.

Already confirmed as newcomers are France's Anne Fontaine, Italy's Henry Cotton's, Paul & Shark, Stefano Ricci, Austrian lingerie shop Wolford, chic Hong Kong labels Moiselle and Rabeanco and emerging Chinese brand Marisfrolg.

Sylvester said that after the success of The Grand Shoppes at The Venetian Macau and the adjacent luxury Four Seasons centre, Sands is now recognised globally as a developer of luxury malls. Such 'street cred' and existing tenant relationships in other markets make it easier to secure quality, name tenants.

Sylvester believes the best elements of the Grand Canal Shoppes and Four Seasons at Macau will be brought together in Marina Bay Sands.

"I love the Four Seasons. The Grand Canal Shoppes is for the tourists and the mainland Chinese love going there to see the sky ceilings and the gondolas - it has an appeal."

But luxury retailers need a luxury environment so architects can showcase their clients' unique store designs without the centre's design swamping the look. Four Seasons achieves that.

He promises the environment at Marina Bay Sands will not be highly themed so as to allow the store designs themselves to showcase the brands, not compete for attention with the centre itself.

With hotel occupancy rates in Singapore down from the highs of two years ago and a flurry of mall redevelopment, cynics might suggest the last thing the city state needs is 2500 more hotel rooms and a 300-store luxury shopping centre.

Sylvester begs to differ.

"We're creating a new market. There hasn't been gaming in Singapore before and we're bringing in a casino. We have MICE (meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition) facilities for 30,000 people and they all have to stay somewhere. In fact we'll be feeding across to other hotels around Marina Bay."

Marina Bay Sands is also creating a new retail destination for CBD workers who currently have no luxury stores accessible during a lunch break - the closest are in Orchard Rd.

Sylvester says most of the customers of the development will come from Sotheast Asia and China, and then from further afield - Japan and Korea, Hong Kong, the Middle East and Europe. He doesn't discount people stopping over while flying the Kangaroo Route between Australia and London, either.