Jurong West Hawker Centre (JWHC) is closing down and will remain shut for at least 10 months.

This shock announcement was made by the National Environment Agency on May 5, 2020.

NEA said the hawker centre will only be reopen sometime in the second half of 2021 after the exit of the current operator, Hawker Management.

Hawker Management, an enterprise under Koufu described as "socially-conscious", will not renew its three-year contract with NEA when it expires on Aug. 6.

NEA is seeking a new operator and will carry out potential renovation work in the interim.

Not ideal performance standards

Hawker Management said its "ideal performance standards" were not met.

The company said results did not meet our ideal performance standards despite Hawker Management's efforts.

"Following HM's (Hawker Management) appointment as the operator of JWHC in 2017, HM had seen to be putting in the necessary resources to bring vibrancy to Jurong West Hawker Centre and support the local hawker trade," the company said in a media release.

"Koufu, as a public listed company, has an obligation to safeguard our shareholders’ interests, therefore we have made the difficult decision to exit upon expiry of the contract in August 2020 to focus efforts on other aspects of our business."

Hawker Management said it remains committed to managing the hawker centre until the end of the contract term.

Rental waivers

It added that it will provide rental waivers for stallholders from June until Aug. 6, the end of stallholders' tenancy.

It will also offer a S$1,000 relocation fee to eligible stallholders.

NEA and Hawker Management said they will help stallholders relocate to available stalls at existing hawker centres and markets managed by NEA, or to coffee shops and food courts run by Koufu.

Existing stallholders will be offered to return to Jurong West Hawker Centre when it is ready, said NEA.

This is on top of the government's three-month rental waiver as part of the Resilience Budget.

NEA said it will conduct a request for proposal to seek new ideas from operators to improve the two-storey hawker centre and market.

The agency said it will conduct conduct public consultations to gather ideas and suggestions from the community.

The hawker centre has been badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

There were about 10 stalls in operation when CNA visited the hawker centre.

According to Koufu, CNA visited the hawker centre close to 6pm when most of the stalls have closed for the day.

Koufu said there are a total of 24 stalls that are still operating, of which 10 are wet market stalls and 14 are cooked food stalls.

Top image via Jurong West Hawker Centre on Facebook