In 2004, with the completion of Pioneer Mall and Punggol Plaza, the Housing & Development Board stopped building neighbourhood centres. This was an effort to get private sector developers to take over the construction of NCs in HDB towns. Some of the private NCs that were constructed include Seletar Mall. However, this caused much inconvenience for residents that moved into the newer towns early on as private developers normally constructed NCs only when a substantial catchment for a particular NC was present so as to generate enough revenue. In an attempt to alleviate these problems, HDB resumed the construction of NCs in 2014 after a 10-year break. These new NCs are known as New Generation Neighbourhood Centres and will each serve a neighbourhood with around 5000 to 6000 households. These NCs are called as such as they are improved versions of the past NCs. The NGNCs incorporated ideas obtained from public consultation while the older NCs do not. Each NGNC will also have a sheltered community plaza to host community events in order to foster social interaction within the community. Water features, terraces as well as “environmentally friendly” systems such as rainwater harvesting will also introduced in the NGNCs. Cable News Network further reported that Canberra Plaza will provide a "complete live-work-play-learn environment for residents and signifies Singapore's public housing for the future". In 2014, HDB held a competition to select the architectural team for Canberra Plaza. The design brief given was: "design a mixed development with a gross floor area of." The Plaza was to be designed with a nautical theme inspired by flowing rivers, as the site of the Plaza is situated near canals such as Sungei Simpang Kiri. In addition, since the Plaza is situated at the gateway to Sembawang Neighbourhood 1, it should also serve as a distinctive landmark for the neighbourhood. In October, a team led by SAA Architects was announced as the winner of the competition. One year later, in October 2015, HDB held a public exhibition on Canberra Plaza at the HDB Hub in Toa Payoh. Thereafter, construction of the Plaza commenced and was expected to end in 2019.
Canberra Plaza is designed with three commercial stories that have a combined gross floor area of The main anchor tenants have a supermarket and a food court. Other commercial units will include a few restaurants, enrichment centres, as well as clinics. A sheltered plaza for community activities and a water playground is incorporated into the design of Canberra Plaza as well. Canberra Plaza will have an A&W outlet, the third in Singapore after those at Jewel Changi Airport and AMK Hub. In order to improve connectivity, a portion of the ground level will be kept open for 24-hours and an sheltered elevated pedestrian footbridge will also link housing precincts across Canberra Way to Canberra Plaza. A similar footbridge will connect Canberra Plaza to Canberra MRT station which is located across Canberra Link.
