Offices
A guide for new office tenants at Fortune Centre
Lifts, loading, management office, and the fact that lunch downstairs is the single best thing about working in this building.
If you have just taken space on one of the upper floors, a few things are worth knowing that nobody will tell you.
Lifts
The passenger lifts serve Levels 9 to 20. They are original to a 1980 building and they are not fast. Several tenants and their visitors comment on it. Budget an extra five minutes for client arrivals, particularly between 8.45 and 9.15am and at lunch.
The escalators only run to Level 4 and will not get you to an office floor.
The management office
The MCST management office is on Level 7. Building matters, access cards, after-hours issues, contractor permits and loading arrangements all go through them. Do this before your fit-out, not during.
Parking
Levels 5, 6 and 8. Season parking is arranged through management. Weekends are congested because of the temple next door, which matters if your staff work Saturdays.
Access from Waterloo Street
Visitors routinely go wrong here. The Waterloo Street entrance puts people on Level 3, from where they have to walk through to reach the lift lobby. If you send directions to a client, send them to the Middle Road entrance and mention Bencoolen MRT Exit B.
Toilets
On several podium levels the toilets are card-access and you get the card from staff. Tell new hires; it is a small thing that generates a lot of confusion in week one.
Lunch
This is the genuine advantage of the building and it is worth using deliberately. You have four floors of food underneath you, most of it under ten dollars, most of it independently run.
If you eat vegetarian, you are in the single best building in Singapore for it. If you do not, Level 4 is the floor to learn — quieter than Levels 1 and 2, with curry puffs, nasi lemak, ramen and banh mi, and you will usually get a seat at 12.30pm when the lower floors are full.
For client lunches that need a table and a door, Pasta & Co. (#02-17), Koryori Hayashi (#02-14) and Moon Chay Vegetarian (#02-27/28) all work. For a drink after, Ume San 100 (#02-07) and Laut (#03-05).
Neighbours worth knowing
There is a very large cluster of accounting, tax and corporate secretarial practices between Levels 9 and 17. If you need any of that work done, you almost certainly do not need to leave the building. The Offices & Others directory lists all of them.