This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 4, 2023 - December 10, 2023

WINNER | Bukit Bintang City Centre | BBCC Development Sdn Bhd

A five-minute walk from the Hang Tuah monorail-LRT interchange station, Bukit Bintang City Centre (BBCC) has a different atmosphere compared with Pudu’s daily hustle and bustle. With sleek new skyscrapers and a Japanese lifestyle mall, the development stands out from the rest of the neighbourhood’s ageing pre- and post-war shophouses that have served generations.

Not all of BBCC is new, though. At the entrance of the development is the former main gate of Pudu Jail, a reminder to visitors of the site’s history.

BBCC Development Sdn Bhd CEO Sri Ram Sivasambu tells City & Country that Pudu Jail was the first central jail in Selangor. “Commissioned in 1895, the jail was in operation for about 101 years and was decommissioned in 1996. After that, it was used for temporary holding. Then, for a while, it was opened to the public, and it was totally demolished in 2012.

“UDA [Holdings Bhd] has been the landowner ever since. UDA as the landowner was entrusted by the government to look into the redevelopment of this land.”

Sometime at the end of 2014, UDA was looking at a few options and proposals from various parties, says Sri Ram. “At the time, Eco World Development Group Bhd submitted a proposal and UDA quite liked it because the proposal was in line with its aspirations and vision for the development.

“Following that, EcoWorld, which had worked with the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) quite closely before, proposed for EPF to be the other partner for the development.”

In February 2015, an agreement was signed between UDA, EcoWorld and EPF to develop BBCC through their joint-venture company BBCC Development Sdn Bhd.

Spread across 19.4 acres, BBCC is an integrated mixed-use transit-oriented development (TOD) comprising residential suites, hotels, retail outlets as well as entertainment and transit hubs.

The first TOD in the neighbourhood, BBCC is the winner of the The Edge Malaysia Excellence in Place Regeneration Award at The Edge Malaysia Property Excellence Awards 2023, which recognises successful catalytic projects that have rejuvenated an area. This award celebrates outstanding achievements in place regeneration, acknowledging innovative strategies and transformative efforts that breathe new life into urban spaces. The recipient’s commitment to fostering sustainable development, community engagement and aesthetic enhancement sets a commendable standard for urban renewal initiatives.

According to Sri Ram, getting the right mix of components that would complement each other as well as their surrounding neighbourhoods was the developer’s top priority during the planning stage of BBCC.

He shares how the idea of BBCC came about. “So, after the joint venture was signed, EcoWorld was appointed as the development manager. Part of the original master plan that we submitted, which UDA liked, leveraged the existing rail connectivity to create an integrated TOD. I think one of the key features of BBCC was that we needed to do something that differentiated us from the many other developments in the area.

“Once completed, the entire development will have about eight towers, a mall and an entertainment hub. So, the population of office workers, residents, visitors and tourists will feed into the retail and entertainment hub.”

Sri Ram says BBCC will have a gross floor area of about 6.8 million sq ft in total. In Phase 1, which has been completed, the developer delivered the Mitsui Shopping Park LaLaport Bukit Bintang City Centre, a Japanese lifestyle mall; an entertainment hub comprising the Malaysia Grand Bazaar, a retro-themed cinema by Golden Screen Cinemas and the 2,500-capacity Zepp Kuala Lumpur concert venue by Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc; the 45-storey Stride office tower; as well as Lucentia Residences with two apartment towers and a total of 668 units.

“In the first phase, we also developed the entire basement car park for the development and a transit hub, as well as conducted other major road infrastructure improvements. Jalan Changkat Thambi Dollah, Jalan Pudu and Jalan Hang Tuah have all been upgraded, and accessibility to the area is much better than before.

“We created the transit hub as we wanted to make sure that pedestrian connectivity within and through the development to areas outside of the development would be good. What we did was integrate the LRT and monorail stations to the pedestrian link to Pudu as well as to the Berjaya Times Square side.

“In addition, we widened all the walkways surrounding the development and built three vehicular tunnels, namely for the ingress and egress from and to Jalan Changkat Thambi Dollah; ingress from Jalan Hang Tuah; and egress to Jalan Galloway. These tunnels have improved connectivity and dispersal in and out of this immediate area,” Sri Ram says.

He reveals that Phase 1 has been completed, which means that about 50% of the gross floor area and about 40% of the estimated gross development value of BBCC has been achieved.

“We’re in Phase 2 now, which will be developed over the next two [to three] years. We will be delivering two apartment blocks — one next year with 269 units, which is a joint venture with Mitsui, and another one in 2026, which is the SWNK apartments with 441 units. Phase 3 of BBCC will consist of another serviced apartment block, a hotel and an office tower.

“Phase 4, which will be the final phase, will be our signature tower. The launch of the signature tower will depend on whether we have an investor, or whether the market will be able to take another super tower for the city,” says Sri Ram.

BBCC is a regeneration project, says Sri Ram. “One key thing about a regeneration project is to improve the area’s socioeconomic status, its surrounding environment and transport system. We have also found that the development’s mall, retail and commercial components have created jobs and a lot of the people working in these areas come from the surrounding communities.

“We took over a site that was vacant. We did not displace or relocate any local community or businesses. Meanwhile, everybody knows Pudu is a foodie haunt — it’s always packed on weekdays, weekends and even holidays.”

To match that, Sri Ram says BBCC features a wide variety of cuisines with its 250m Gourmet Street, which offers Western, Mediterranean and Japanese cuisines. “Across the road, along Jalan Changkat Thambi Dollah, you will see many local Chinese restaurants that have been there for decades and we see office workers here walk across to have local delicacies during lunch. So, I think we’re complementing the neighbourhood quite well and actually adding to the [footfall] of the existing businesses.”

Another key factor for a regeneration project is ensuring that it is sustainably built, he stresses. This includes the selection of materials, incorporating more green features and ensuring that the systems installed are efficient. He shares that BBCC has been awarded the Green Building Index (GBI) Township Gold status, and every single building in the development has a green building certification.

“[We also have] a rooftop garden space called Central Rooftop Garden in LaLaport, which is about seven acres. If you go to our residential developments, you will find a lot of green spaces as well.

“We have introduced energy-saving features in all of our mechanical and engineering, air conditioning and lighting systems, among others. Most of the glass used in the development is Low-E glass, which reduces the need to use air conditioning as well as the building’s cooling system.”

When the developer took over the site, one of the major challenges it faced was the risk that the construction would pose to the community as well as to existing structures around the development, says Sri Ram.

“At the back of BBCC, there are a lot of old shophouses as well as residential areas. So, we had to make sure to constantly monitor these structures to ensure we caused minimal impact or damage to them. Happy to say that these buildings have not been affected that much.

“The other main thing was the rail line. We have the monorail and LRT lines right in front of the development. Any movement at the train stations would cause the entire train service to stop. This was another critical thing to look at, especially at the frontage, as we were excavating about 30m into the ground.”

Traffic was an issue when the developer was building the vehicular tunnels. “But the interesting thing is while we were building the tunnels, we closed the roads, diverted traffic and reduced the lanes. With that inconvenience, many road users found alternatives during that period of time. Now with everything back in good condition, you can see that the traffic is better.”

To further improve the development, Sri Ram says the developer is now working to enhance the frontage of BBCC along Jalan Hang Tuah. “We plan to revamp the entire area from the fountain right up to the transit hub to give a grand frontage and drop-off area for the development. We are also looking at turning the sales gallery into an F&B (food and beverage) hub to complement LaLaport.”

As for LaLaport, Sri Ram says the mall’s footfall per month has grown from two million to an average of three million to 3.5 million. During events or bazaars, the footfall can go up to four million, he shares. The mall’s current occupancy rate is about 70%. He says the developer is targeting to reach an occupancy rate of about 80% by the middle of next year, 85% by the end of 2024 and 100% by end-2025.

“We opened the mall in January 2022, [during] the pandemic [and at that time] the occupancy rate was about 25% and now we’re at 70%. To be fair, we are only about 18 months old as a development, so we are still at the growth stage. Over the next two or three years, I am confident that we will hit our targeted numbers and improve from where we are today,” he says.

Developments within BBCC have shown positive growth in terms of rental rates and return on investment, says Sri Ram. “The market is picking up and our property prices are holding up quite well from the time we sold it to what it is today. Over the past year, we’ve probably seen an increase of about 20% to 25% in terms of rental rates for our offices as well as our residential projects.”

Sri Ram adds that another developer is now working on a TOD adjacent to the Pudu LRT station. “With more enhanced rail connectivity and TODs developing at these spots, it’s just going to improve and increase the socioeconomic activities within the neighbourhood of Pudu. Although newer developments keep coming in, I think the heritage part of Pudu needs to be preserved, just like what they’ve done with Petaling Street. I think that’s going to create a good balance of modernity and heritage,” he says.

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