To meet increasing demand for office space at Maxwell Chambers, the Government will have a second annexe of 3,500 sq ft built at the adjacent former Red Dot Traffic Building, now renamed the Maxwell Chambers Suites.
This is on top of the 120,000 sq ft - the equivalent of 100 five-room flats - expansion announced earlier this year.
The $25 million refurbishment and conservation project is expected to be completed in 2019, said the Ministry of Law (MinLaw).
The Red Dot Design Museum's lease ended in April. It will be relocated to the Marina Bay City Gallery by the last quarter of this year.
MinLaw said tenants have already taken up 65 per cent of the new office space and include The Arbitration Chambers, headed by Professor Lawrence Boo, and London barristers One Essex Court.
The Maxwell Chambers Suites will also house ancillary services firm Opus 2, an international company which specialises in transcription and hearing room services.
The details were revealed yesterday at a ground-breaking ceremony for the redevelopment of the site.
By 2021, the area will be served by the present Tanjong Pagar MRT station and the upcoming Maxwell and Shenton Way stations on the Thomson-East Coast Line.
Maxwell Chambers Suites will have four floors of about 50 offices for dispute resolution institutions, arbitration chambers, law firms and other ancillary service providers.
An overhead link-bridge will connect Maxwell Chambers and Maxwell Chambers Suites.
"Our vision is for Maxwell Chambers to be a base in Asia for all major players," said Senior Minister of State for Law and Finance Indranee Rajah yesterday.
"This is part of our larger plan to take dispute resolution in Singapore to the next level over the next decade."
On Wednesday, Singapore won international recognition for ground- breaking legislative changes made to its debt restructuring framework, and decisions in the High Court.
Singapore has seen 10 investment arbitration hearings this year, which have already been held, or are going to be held later in the year. This is double the number in 2013.
Ms Indranee said: "These are typically complex and high-stakes cases that provide good exposure for our legal talent, and raise our profile as a dispute resolution centre."
