SINGAPORE - Home-grown Como Group will open its first Singapore hotel later in 2023 just off Orchard Road.

The lifestyle group created by luxury fashion retail doyenne Christina Ong will transform 30 Bideford Road, a mixed-use development on the site of the former Thong Sia Building, into the Como Metropolitan Singapore hotel and lifestyle space.

To be called Como Orchard, the 19-storey building will also house a multi-label fashion store, a new wellness space and gourmet concepts by Michelin-starred restaurant chefs, said a Como Group spokesman, adding that negotiations with partners are ongoing.

Como Orchard will be operated through a commercial lease from Bideford House, a subsidiary of Singapore-listed real estate company Boustead Projects.

The group’s Como Hotels and Resorts also operates 16 properties worldwide, including Como Metropolitan London and resorts such as Como Point Yamu in Phuket and Como Maalifushi in the Maldives.

Hotel owners are jostling to capture demand now that tourists and corporate travellers are returning to Singapore after the past years of pandemic restrictions hurt business.

The old Hilton Singapore at 581 Orchard Road is now voco Orchard Singapore, a new brand by IHG Hotels & Resorts, while the Mandarin Orchard Singapore at 333 reopened early in 2022 as Hilton Singapore Orchard.

Accor’s Pullman Singapore Orchard opened on Dec 1 at the site of the former Grand Park Orchard at 270 Orchard Road, while Vibe Hotel Singapore Orchard, an Australian brand operated by local hospitality management company Far East Hospitality, launched on Nov 3.