Retailer Mustafa will close its Serangoon Plaza branch next month ahead of the mall being redeveloped into a 19-storey mixed development, Centrium Square.

Run by Mohamad Mustafa & Samsuddin since 1985, the 6038 sqm store is known for its bargains. Its closure will leave only the Mustafa Centre store at Syed Alwi Road.

As well as retail, Mustafa offers money changing, travel and visa services, and also has a rooftop restaurant. Known by tourists as well as Singaporeans, the store started out as a hole-in-the wall garment shop in 1971, reports the Straits Times.

Measuring just 46 sqm, it was opened in Campbell Lane in Little India by current MD Mustaq Ahmad, with his father Mustafa and uncle Samsuddin. Two years later, they rented a second shop in Serangoon Road to sell electronic items. In 1985, the shops were acquired for conservation and Mustaq opened his flagship department store at Serangoon Plaza.

He went on to buy some old shophouses one by one along Syed Alwi Road until he owned the whole row. In their place, he put up Mustafa Centre, which opened in 1995.

Late the same year, S$1 million (US$699,250) was spent on renovating and expanding Mustafa’s retail space in Serangoon Plaza.

Replacing the five-storey Serangoon Plaza, Centrium Square will comprise medical suites and offices as well as retail. It will be completed in the third quarter of 2019.