Former gymnast opens women-only wellness hub blending movement, recovery and dining

A short walk from Holland Village MRT, up a flight of stairs, the noise of the neighbourhood falls away. The Calla Project occupies two storeys in what was once a hair salon. Downstairs, Nourish opens its doors to anyone—a cafe for eating, working, lingering. Upstairs, Recharge is reserved for women: a Finnish sauna, a cold plunge held at twelve to fifteen degrees Celsius, a mineral bath, a microbubble bath, and an outdoor terrace where movement classes happen and people gather.

Anastasiia Cheong, twenty-nine, built this place because she stopped seeing wellness as separate boxes. Movement, recovery, food, connection—she wanted them under one roof so someone could take a class, plunge into cold water, eat lunch, and meet a friend without driving across the city. It's a deliberate architecture, not accidental.

Cheong spent roughly twenty-four years as a gymnast, starting at four years old, then coached the sport in Singapore before stepping away in 2025 to open this, her first business. Gymnastics taught her that recovery matters as much as training. But her strongest memories weren't about performance. They were about the spaces where athletes sat together, talked, relaxed. She wanted to build that feeling for ordinary women—not elite athletes, not the intimidating performance gym, not the luxury hotel wellness suite that costs what a car payment costs. Something accessible. Something that felt less clinical and more like a place where you belonged.

The property itself needed work. The original staircase sat on the opposite side; the layout made the space feel cramped. Cheong relocated it, reconfigured the circulation, and spent almost six months turning the old salon into what it is now. She received the keys in late September 2025, waited for regulatory approvals, then moved through site prep in January, demolition in February, and renovation starting in early March. The day before opening in May, she was still finishing details. The renovation alone cost roughly four hundred thousand dollars. Equipment, kitchen, changing rooms, furniture, electrical work—another four hundred thousand. Eight hundred thousand total.

The hardest part was building the pools on the third floor, which required structural reinforcement and safety considerations that older buildings don't always accommodate easily. The kitchen and changing facilities were built from scratch. Everything else got a substantial overhaul.

Inside, Cheong rejected the clinical look of a sports facility. Pastel colours throughout. Curved forms that soften edges. A pink neon installation that became one of the most recognisable features. Timber-lined sauna interiors sit beside cool blue lighting around the plunge and bath. The outdoor terrace offers another place to sit, away from the treatment spaces. There's no strict time limit. Cheong wanted women to move between facilities at their own pace, not feel rushed through a prescribed circuit.

The visitors who come are mostly women in their thirties and forties, though their reasons vary. Some come after training for physical recovery. Others come to spend time with friends, to relax, to carve out a few hours alone. The sauna and magnesium bath are the most popular. The cold plunge, kept deliberately not extreme, often produces what Cheong describes as giggles and squeals on hot days—it becomes fun rather than intimidating.

Downstairs at Nourish, the menu reflects the same philosophy: balance without restriction. Wellness-conscious dishes sit alongside more indulgent options. Guests linger after their recovery session, working on laptops, reading, meeting friends. A small library lets people take a book or leave one behind. The name itself—The Calla Project—comes from Cheong's favourite flower, which symbolises rebirth, beauty, purity. She chose the word Project deliberately because she never wanted the space to feel finished or static, but something that could keep growing, keep changing. Cheong was raised in Russia by a Russian mother and Singaporean father, moved to Singapore after university to reconnect with her heritage, and has lived here nearly seven years. This is what she built.