Entrepreneur Ashish Manchharam On Infusing A Vibrant Energy To Heritage Enclaves

A passion for rejuvenating Singapore’s heritage buildings has inspired real estate entrepreneur Ashish Manchharam to create new communities that are bringing even more buzz to the city

- Karen Tee

Over the past few months, many of Singapore’s hotels have reopened following the end of the two-month circuit breaker period in June and have been offering staycations to travel-starved locals. But popular boutique hotels KeSa House and Ann Siang House, which are located in vibrant heritage enclaves close to Singapore’s central business district, have remained closed.

Even in October, when we met Ashish Manchharam, the man behind these two properties, for a photoshoot at KeSa House on Keong Saik Road, the hotel was still not up and running. In the few areas that we had access to, beds were wrapped in protective plastic, and utensils and kitchen equipment remained covered up.

But this is not a sign that things have taken a turn for the worse. Rather, Manchharam, the founder and managing director of 8M Real Estate, says he has been busy implementing plans for the future. Since Singapore’s circuit-breaker measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 was lifted, the two hotels, which are located in heritage shophouses, have been undergoing improvements that he had long been meaning to implement.

“Occupancy has been great since their launches, but there were certain things we could not fix while there were guests. So having the closures gave us the window of opportunity to make some refurbishments to the spaces,” he says. “We are optimistic that when things open up further, Singapore will be well-positioned for recovery given that we have been better at managing the pandemic than most places.”