Across Commonwealth Avenue, this now-empty piece of land along Tanglin Halt and Commonwealth Drive used to be the Tanglin Halt Industrial Estate.
Planning started in 1956 when the SIT set aside 4.8 hectares for the development of cottage industries. However, the HDB revised the plans in the 1960s and earmarked the area for light industries.
Constituting 17 hectares, companies could start up on land leased on easy repayment terms for manufacturing activities such as electronics, textiles, vinyl music records and even chocolate making! Familiar businesses such as Roxy-Electric, Van Houten, and Sime Darby operated from here. It was also from Setron Limited's factory that the first made-in-Singapore black and white television made its debut in 1964.
The industrial estate declined and ceased to operate by the late 1980s due to the restructuring of Singapore's economy from manufacturing to services.