Bai Nian Food Court Loses $250K In 7 Months; ‘The Building Is Dead,’ Says 29-Year-Old Owner

Local F&B entrepreneur Tommy Pang, 29, has been candid about the ups and downs of running his family's businesses.

Last year, the second-generation owner of decade-old yong tau foo chain Bai Nian revealed that its sister brand, pork leg rice chain Shi Nian, had lost $500K in six months after an aggressive expansion.

Now, another of the family's businesses is struggling.

In a recent Instagram video, Tommy revealed that Bai Nian Food Court at ESR BizPark @ Chai Chee, which his family operates, has lost about $250K in the past seven months.

“We lost about $250K, just to keep the lights on at this food court,” he said.

“And we really cannot let it continue like this. If not, I really have no idea how we're going to continue operating this space.”

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Food court has been struggling with empty stalls

The family has operated Bai Nian Food Court since 2017. It is the only food court they run.

The food court has eight stalls, including a drinks stall. Several are occupied by the family's own F&B brands, including Bai Nian, Shi Nian and prawn noodle brand Hae! Mee.

One major challenge, according to Tommy, has been finding tenants.

In his video, he recounted how a Western food stall abruptly pulled out recently, forfeiting their entire deposit, “which is a big amount”.

The family tried to find an Indian food operator to take over the unit, but couldn't secure one. 

Weekday crowd can be as low as 10 to 20 per cent

Speaking to 8days.sg, Tommy shared that the food court's biggest problem is footfall.

Business started declining during Covid and has never recovered, he said, as companies moved out of the business park and working from home became more common. 

“The problem is, there are just no people anymore. The building is dead,” said Tommy.

He pointed out that the problem isn't unique to Bai Nian, claiming that other F&B outlets in the development can also be very quiet on weekdays.

The food court, which seats around 400 to 500 diners, is typically only “10 to 20 per cent occupied” during weekday lunch.

On a recent weekday, Tommy was there at noon and saw just “four or five tables” occupied.

Weekends fared better, with the food court around 80 per cent full during lunchtime, thanks in part to the many children's enrichment centres at the mall.

But the sparse weekday crowd makes it difficult to attract stallholders.

“When [prospective] tenants come down and see the crowd, they aren't confident because there are so few people,” said Tommy.

His family rents the food court space from ESR and in turn sublets individual stalls to operators for around $4K a month.

“We're not asking for very high rent. It's really just to help cover the overall main rent,” he said.

“But even if we rent the stalls out cheaply, it's no use. Nobody wants to come in.”

Starting own concepts to keep the food court going

Unable to find enough tenants, Tommy and his family have increasingly had to operate the stalls themselves “to keep the place going”.

“The rent is very high. Rather than leave a stall empty, I need to take it up myself and start something new,” he said.

In fact, only one external tenant remains at the eight-stall food court — ban mian stall The Spice Pavilion. 

Besides Bai Nian, Shi Nian, Hae! Mee and claypot rice stall Bao Zai Wang, the family has opened two new concepts in August: kampung chicken rice stall Lao Ban Niang and The Soup Bowl, where diners pick their own fresh ingredients, noodles and soup base.

The family also runs popular Dudu Cantonese Cuisine, which was recently forced to relocate after its landlord did not renew the coffeeshop's master lease. Moving Dudu into Bai Nian Food Court wasn't an option as its claypot cooking generates too much fire, smoke and heat for a typical food court stall.

But starting a new concept isn't cheap. Tommy estimates it costs around $15K to set up a small stall even when doing the “bare minimum”.

There's also the time spent on R&D, training kitchen staff, and marketing each new brand.

“It’s a lot of pressure,” he said, adding that having to keep creating new concepts for the food court takes time and resources away from his other stalls and businesses.

"How am I able to focus on trying to grow Dudu to be the next big brand if I need to keep looking behind my back?"

Food court holds sentimental value for the family

Despite losing $250K in seven months, Tommy and his family aren't ready to give up on the food court.

Part of the reason is “sentimental”.

When the family took over the food court nine years ago, Bai Nian yong tau foo had just two hawker stalls elsewhere. Opening a food court bearing the Bai Nian name, along with its third yong tau foo stall, helped put the then-small brand on the map.

“That's when word of mouth started to spread, that Bai Nian, a small hawker stall, has opened a food court,” shared Tommy.

“This place is like my home. My family used to come here every day,” he said.

“We really don’t want to give it up.”

The family renewed its lease in October 2025, which runs until 2030. Tommy said business was still manageable then, with three external tenants at the food court.

It was only in the past four to five months that things “escalated”, as more tenants left.

Closing the food court would also affect the 17 employees who work there.

“I have no place for them,” said Tommy, adding that his other businesses don't have the capacity to absorb them.

Giving away free drinks for a month to draw customers

For now, Tommy and his team are trying to draw customers from outside the business park.

They recently launched a free hot drink promo.

Until Sept 30, customers who purchase any main dish from the family's six food brands at the food court will receive a free hot drink. Choices include kopi, tea and yuan yang, while iced versions cost an additional 50 cents. 

But he admits getting diners to make a special trip to a food court isn't easy.

“If the space was a restaurant, maybe marketing [can] get people to purposely travel down. But would you really purposely travel so far just for [simple] comfort food?”

They have also started a dedicated Instagram account for Bai Nian Food Court and are looking at other campaigns to draw customers, though nothing is concrete.

Asking landlord to lower rent

Tommy also hopes landlord ESR will lower the food court's rent.

“If not, I really cannot continue,” he said.

He acknowledged that ESR may be facing similar problems attracting office tenants to the development.

Asked how much longer he's prepared to hold on, Tommy admitted he doesn't know.

The two new concepts and free-drinks initiative have only just started, and he wants to see how they perform over the next month and whether ESR can offer some relief.

He also didn't rule out eventually finding someone else to take over the food court.

Why share their business struggles online?

While many business owners might think twice about publicising their losses, Tommy believes being transparent can help — if done the right way.

“If all I did was constantly talk about how badly the business was doing or complain about our problems, I think eventually it would hurt the brand,” he said.

Instead, he wants to show what went wrong, what they're doing about it and “hopefully eventually how we came back from it”.

While Tommy didn't say if his previous posts have led to an increase in sales, he believes the transparency has helped people connect with the brands, with some customers telling him they visited the affected eateries after watching their videos.

His parents are okay with the posts too, though Tommy said he's careful about what he shares.

“There are things within the family and business that should remain private, and I wouldn't put everything online just for content,” he said.

“For me, I just want people to know the story behind our food court. And over time, I think that trust and connection is very valuable for the business.”

Bai Nian Food Court is at #01-24 ESR BizPark @ Chai Chee, 750 Chai Chee Rd, S469000. Open daily 10am to 9pm. More info via Instagram.

Photos: bainianfoodcourt/Instagram, Miya Angela/Trip.com, ESR BizPark at Chai Chee/Facebook