Poised to be Kuala Lumpur’s new central business district, KL Eco City by S P Setia Bhd is a 25-acre mixed-use and transit-oriented development (TOD) situated within Kuala Lumpur’s prime Jalan Bangsar and conveniently adjacent to Mid Valley City.

Launched in 2011, the project, which has a gross development value (GDV) of RM7 billion, offers a total of seven million sq ft in built-up area. It comprises three residential phases, a hotel and residences tower, three corporate office towers, strata office suites and 12 boutique offices, as well as a 250,000 sq ft retail mall over five podium levels.

The mall, formerly known as KL Eco City Mall, has now been relaunched as INC — a lifestyle mall with a diversified tenant mix comprising F&B outlets, beauty and wellness centres, a home furnishing and interior design centre, food hall, grocer, art gallery, climbing gym, cooking academy and event space.

KL Eco City also saw the opening of Amari Kuala Lumpur, a 252-key business hotel, last year. Managed by Thailand-based ONYX Hospitality Group, the hotel offers four dining experiences and facilities such as an infinity pool overlooking the city skyline and a state-of-the-art gym.

As a centre of economic growth, KL Eco City offers seamless connectivity and accessibility with the Abdullah Hukum LRT and KTM integrated rail hub, which is just two LRT stations away from KL Sentral, as well as the pedestrian link bridge that connects the development to The Gardens Mall at Mid Valley City, drawing business opportunities and retail footfall. It is also located close to a comprehensive network of major roads and highways with multiple access points to and from the Federal Highway, New Pantai Expressway, Jalan Bangsar and Jalan Maarof.

Further, KL Eco City has successfully obtained MSC Malaysia Cybercentre status, whereby businesses can operate with various tax and investment incentives as well as get access to world-class ICT infrastructure and support services.

As a testament to its good design and development, KL Eco City has won several accolades, including the FIABCI World Prix d’Excellence Awards 2022 (World Gold Winner in the Mixed-Use Development category), and FIABCI World Prix d’Excellence Awards 2020 (World Gold Winner in the Office category). It also took home awards at the FIABCI Malaysia Property Awards in 2021 and 2019 for Mixed-Use Development and Best Office Category respectively.

To date, KL Eco City has attracted a host of reputable local and international companies, including notable anchor tenants like Samsung Malaysia Electronics Head Office, Gilbratar BSN Head Office, Zurich Malaysia Head Office, J&T Express, F-Secure Corporation (M) Sdn Bhd, Veolia Water (Malaysia) Holding & Veolia Water Technologies, Zalora Malaysia, Shopee Malaysia, Klook Malaysia, Ace Group, Tech Titan Distribution Sdn Bhd and SK Tiong Group.

According to S P Setia Divisional General Manager Tan Siow Chung, the overall office occupancy rate at KL Eco City is 92%. “We managed to maintain a positive office occupancy despite the pandemic with 95% occupancy for Mercu 2 and 91% for Mercu 3. These propitious office occupancy rates are a testament that KL Eco City is a strategic investment for astute business owners and investors.”

This year will see the completion of KL Eco City’s final and finest corporate office tower — Aspire Tower. The Grade-A stratified office tower, which has a GDV of RM1 billion, will comprise more than 670,000 sq ft of commercial space.

The 42-storey office tower will offer three office layout options to cater for a wide spectrum of industries and corporate needs. The compact and personalised Executive Offices, measuring 1,152 to 1,971 sq ft, are specially made for start-ups that aim to leverage the prime locale and be among larger multinational companies (MNCs). The Signature Offices, ranging from 3,623 to 16,393 sq ft, offer spacious and flexible workspaces suitable for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The Premier Offices, which occupy the entire floor space at 18,690 sq ft, promote an open and flexible environment ideal for larger corporations and MNCs. The starting price for office space at Aspire Tower is RM1.6 million.

“As an integrated commercial space, Aspire Tower is designed for a diverse business community. Its spatial planning provides a favourable business environment for young start-ups to international corporations,” says Tan.

With its flexible layouts and sizes, Aspire Tower is ideal for those looking to rightsize their business. “While rightsizing has become a new trend post-pandemic, rightsizing an office involves moving to a new location that better suits the needs of the business and more often to a prime and prestigious business address,” he adds.

For security and safety, Aspire Tower comes with two exclusive lift lobbies with a total of 16 elevators — the Low Zone lift lobby to serve the Executive Offices and Signature Offices and the High Zone lift lobby to serve the Premier Offices — as well as a card access and visitor management system, turnstile access and CCTV.

The office tower comes with 553 car parking bays where proprietors at Aspire Tower can enjoy the unique benefit of owning car parking spaces. A purchase of selected office space or service premises within the tower entitles you to private parking bays for your absolute convenience. Each parking space transforms a significant cost outlay into an investment and an asset.

The office tower also has a landscaped deck connecting Aspire Tower to Mercu 3 and Amari Hotel. Commercial spaces to cater for the service premises — such as a gym with adjoining swimming pool, business centre and sky dining — are available for outright purchase by companies.

Knight Frank Malaysia executive director of office strategy and solutions Teh Young Khean notes that the market demand for prime Grade-A commercial offices in KL fringe remains steady while displaying healthy rental and occupancy levels. “Rental for such commercial offices in the KL Eco City area has risen by about 14% since the buildings’ completion around late 2017 to early 2019. The rental rates achieved a healthy approximate increment of 8% from 2020 till 1Q2023. The positive uptrend is mainly attributed to its connectivity to integrated rail infrastructure and a wide array of amenities.”

In terms of occupancy, Teh notes that the main contributor is KL Eco City’s prime location and connectivity. “Being a transit-oriented mixed-use development further strengthens its offerings. Having major anchor tenants and large corporate companies within the development is another contributing factor, along with its retail mall’s wide offerings.”

Teh adds that its GBI certification and MSC Malaysia Cybercentre status would further draw corporations to consider KL Eco City as their next office location.

According to JLL Property Services (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd country head YY Lau, KL Eco City’s draw is that it represents quite a big office cluster in an established location that can be easily accessed by those in the KL city centre and Selangor. “It is a good example of a successful TOD as it is connected to the LRT and KTM [rail lines], in addition to its accessibility via several major roads.

“In addition, several office buildings in KL Eco City, including Aspire Tower, have been designed to receive GBI and LEED Gold certification,” she adds, noting that rent levels at KL Eco City are in line with the market average for leasehold properties in the KL fringe submarket, varying from RM6 to RM7 psf monthly.

Lau also adds that KL Eco City’s MSC Malaysia Cybercentre status will offer eligible companies some significant financial and entrepreneurial benefits. “Companies meeting the MSC Malaysia/Malaysia Digital criteria will benefit not just from the very good location, but also from neighbouring companies that can become their partners or clients. On the other hand, established tenants representing other business sectors will also have a positive synergistic effect in an MSC Cybercentre as there are opportunities for cooperation with IT companies, and IT clusters often bring more talent into the neighbourhood.”