Prima to Vacate Its Historic Keppel Road Flour Mill in 2028 After Mapletree Extends the Lease by Nine Months

Prima’s lease at 201 Keppel Road previously ran to 30 April 2027. A Mapletree spokesperson said the nine-month extension to 31 January 2028 was granted at Prima’s request. A 2024 report said the company originally intended to move its operations to a site at Jurong Port between the last quarter of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027. Asked whether it still plans to move in 2028 or intends to expand or scale down its Singapore operations after leaving Keppel, Prima declined to comment.

Prima executive director Tony Loke said when the group sold its PrimaDeli bakery business to caterer Neo Group in 2025 for an undisclosed sum that the group would concentrate on its upstream flour-milling business to serve local flour-based industries.

The complex houses warehouse blocks, silo blocks, a flour mill and an office block with a gross floor area of more than 40,000 sq m. Prima was founded in 1961 by the late Cheng Tsang Man and built Singapore’s first flour mill. In 1977 it opened the Prima Tower Revolving Restaurant, built 70 m up on top of the mill’s wheat grain silo, which became a local landmark until the restaurant closed in April 2020 during the pandemic, ending a 43-year run. Prima was listed in 1969 on the then Stock Exchange of Singapore and Malaysia, and was taken private by the family in 2023. It has 4,000 employees globally.

Mapletree Logistics Trust acquired the site in 2005 from its sponsor, Mapletree Investments, at an appraised value of S$26.5 million, when Prima was the sole tenant and midway through a 30-year lease that began in 1989. The lease was extended by eight years from 2019. A call option gives Mapletree Investments the right to buy the site back from the trust for redevelopment. The land is on a 99-year lease dating from 1997.

A Mapletree Investments spokesperson said the group is “exploring various options for the future of the property as part of the broader rejuvenation of the Greater Southern Waterfront”, including conservation studies to assess opportunities for adaptive reuse. It pointed to its restoration of the nearby St James Power Station, which won an award for Conservation and Innovation (Distinction) at the 2022 URA Architectural Heritage Awards. The wider port redevelopment is in line with the government’s vision to create housing and commercial space across the Greater Southern Waterfront.