Jazz Hotel Penang

 

Penang New Waterfront City Coming Up

The Light City is a highly-acclaimed integrated waterfront development in Penang, Malaysia. It has gone through many design revision over the years and was put on hold last year due to Covid-19.

Construction works have finally commenced on Phase 1 of this mega undertaking by IJM Perennial Development Sdn. Bhd. ("IJM Perennial") - a joint venture between IJM Corporation Berhad ("IJM") and Perennial Holdings Private Limited ("Perennial").

Situated adjacent to an Expressway that connect the city to the industrial parks at the Southern part of the island, it is easily accessible by both residents and travellers. The Penang Bridge, International Airport and Ferry Terminal are within a 10km radius, and even the proposed The Light LRT Station will be located next to the site.

The Light City spans a total gross floor area (GFA) of over 4.1mil sq ft and will be developed in two phases into a unique waterfront precinct.

Key components of the project includes the Penang Waterfront Convention Centre (PWCC) which will be the largest in the state with 270,000sq.ft. of Gross Floor Area, a 1.5mil sq.ft. retail mall, 34-storey hotel and office towers, as well as two residential apartments - Mezzo and Essence.

Phase I comprises the PWCC, 1mil sq.ft. of the retail mall, the hotel and office tower, and Mezzo. Construction commenced on Oct 1, 2020 and is expected to complete progressively from December 2024 onwards.

Officially named The Waterfront Shoppes, the retail mall will offer new-to-market shopping, dining, entertainment and lifestyle experiences set against the architectural heritage of Penang.

Features include an exclusive Beverly Hills-inspired rodeo drive with external flagship stores lining the street. The F&B zones will feature an open concept gourmet food hall, food street and large-format dining concepts.

Meanwhile, al-fresco waterfront dining outlets provide diners with the perfect setting to unwind with an extensive selection of cafes, eateries and restaurants framed by clear views of the sea and the majestic Penang Bridge.

Located adjacent to the retail mall and seamlessly connected to it and the PWCC will be a luxurious four-star hotel catering to Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) delegates and leisure guests alike.

The 500-room hotel will also have smart security and access features such as mobile app check-in, keyless entry and room automation control to create a seamless guest experience.

The Light City aspires to be the first smart city in Penang. A leading converged solutions provider in Malaysia has been appointed to integrate the latest information and communications (ICT) infrastructure and turn it into a 5G city.

This affords MICE delegates, shoppers, hotel guests, office tenants and residents optimal online connectivity and high-quality voice, data and digital solutions.

Source: The Edge

经过多次设计更改和由于去年疫情暂停后，这独特项目终于开启啦！它将为马来西亚的槟城增多一个旅游和打卡景点。

The Light City

GEORGE TOWN: IJM Land Bhd will restart work on the stalled RM4.5bil The Light City project, which is located next to the Penang Bridge, in August.

IJM Perennial Development Sdn Bhd general manager Tan Hun Beng said the construction work was supposed to start in April.

IJM Perennial is a joint-venture company between IJM Corp Bhd and Singapore-based Perennial Real Estate Holdings Ltd to oversee the project.

“But because of the movement control order (MCO), we have to postpone it to August, ” Tan added.

According to Tan, the details of the contract for the project are now being finalised.

“The contract should be awarded in July to the group’s construction subsidiary, Jurutama Sdn Bhd.

“The time is right to start the project because the drop in fuel price will lower the construction cost, ” he said.

Tan added that the project, scheduled for completion within a four-year period, might take longer because of the new SOPs that needed to be adhered to in light of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Last December, IJM Perennial signed with OCBC Bank Bhd, RHB Bank Bhd, CIMB Bank Bhd and Malayan Banking Bhd for a loan facility of over RM1bil to finance the project.

Initially, IJM Land had planned to start work on The Light City in 2018, but given the property market slowdown, the group held back the implementation of the project to revise the plan.

“We made revisions so that the project could be launched in two phases, according to the pace of market demand.

“The new plan can now accommodate more food and beverage outlets and possibly, an experiential themed park in phase two, ” Tan said.

In the revised plan, the first phase will have a mall with a 680,000-sq-ft net lettable area, the Penang Waterfront Convention Centre, a four-star hotel with 500 rooms, offices and the Mezzo residential condominiums.

The second phase will have a 300,000-sq-ft mall, a five-star hotel with 250 rooms, offices and the Essence residential condominiums.

“The work on the first phase should create some 1,000 jobs for the local construction industry.

“The first phase is scheduled for completion in 2024, ” Tan said.

Tan said the sales of the Mezzo condominiums and the occupancy of the mall would determine the commencement of the second phase.

“If the response to the condominium and the mall is good, we will start the second phase as soon as possible, ” said Tan.

“The retail mall and the hotel business would be well supported by the convention centre, which is expected to bring in the crowds.

“The meeting, incentive, convention and exhibition market will drive the demand for the convention centre space.

“Our location is well-centralised around the airport, free industrial zone, George Town city and the mainland. This is also an added advantage, ” he added.

IJM is one of Malaysia’s leading conglomerates with businesses in construction, property, plantations, industry and infrastructure. It has operations in 10 countries, with the primary focus on Malaysia, India, the United Arab Emirates, China and Indonesia.

Perennial is an integrated real estate and healthcare company headquartered and listed in Singapore.

As a real estate owner, developer and manager, Perennial focuses strategically on large-scale, mixed-use developments.

It has operations in China, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar and Ghana with a combined portfolio spanning over 65 million sq ft.

Source: The Star

Penang International Commercial City

Integrated Commercial City
Smarter Luxury Living
World-class Health and Green Lifestyle

Introducing the new epicentre for commerce, Penang International Commercial City (PICC). It is a visionary masterpiece destined to propel Penang into the global commercial limelight, representing its vibrant culture and heritage, while showcasing cutting-edge ingenuity. One of the largest integrated smart developments in the North, this will be the pulse of the island that ushers in a new age of global living.

Aspen Vision City Penang

Aspen Vision City Masterplan

The excitement over the RM13 bil Aspen Vision City (AVC) in mainland Penang, being jointly developed by home-grown Aspen Group and Ikano Pte Ltd, is growing among consumers and the state’s populace.

The unveiling of the township project kicked off with the opening of the 4.8ha Central Island Park in October, located just after the Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge (Second Penang Bridge) in Batu Kawan, with the developer promising that the pace of implemention will ensure the project will soon become a reality.

Aspen Group’s 99ha flagship master city mixed development project is on track and will soon be completed, says its president and Group CEO Datuk Murly Manokharan.

For example, the commercial component, Vervea, is expecting to obtain the Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC) in December this year while the first IKEA store in the northern part of Malaysia will open its doors in 2019, two years ahead of schedule.

Christian Rojkjaer, managing director of IKEA Southeast Asia, says it is likely to open even earlier, on March 14 from the earlier March 28.

With the first phase of AVC, which includes the Central Island Park, Vervea shop office and IKEA Batu Kawan store, nearing completion, Murly says the development, being the third satellite city in the state, has to look carefully into its future transportation needs as this feature will be a focal point for the project.

Ikea Penang opening March 2019.

AVC is one of the largest integrated mixed developments in the region, primed to be the nexus of northern Malaysia.

As the master developer, Aspen has already attracted Vittoria Financial Centre, Columbia Asia Medical Centre, Viluxe Designer Bungalows, a business hotel, an international school and office towers, along with a transportation hub to the development.

Approvals from the federal authorities for the RM8.4bil Bayan Lepas light rail transit (LRT) are expected to be obtained and this will see AVC boasting an LRT station on site, possibly the first outside the Klang Valley.

Island-mainland LRT route

“The site has already been chosen,” he tells FocusM, confident that it is not a matter of if the station will be built but when.

The state and federal governments are finally seeing eye-to-eye and the advent of an LRT line serving the mainland side of Penang will be a boost for AVC, he says.

An observer says mapping out the transportation requirements of such a big development is crucial as more of AVC’s component blocks are completed, else it could become a “transportation nightmare” for residents, shoppers and visitors alike.

AVC is directly linked to the island by the Second Penang Bridge and the rest of the country by the North-South Expressway. The population growth could also prove to be an important factor in the development of the project.

Batu Kawan itself is about 6,000ha and is estimated to have a population of 60,000 once it is fully developed, says Murly, pointing out that the masterplan has already mapped out the transportation needs.

“With the unparalleled connectivity and first-class infrastructure and amenities, AVC will be readily connected to the entire 6.5 million population in the northern region of Malaysia.

“With all the key catalysts and the investments from various business partners and key industry players, it is able to bring in ample job opportunities, tourist presence, economic advancement and investment opportunities.

Added investments

“Located at a prominent locale of Batu Kawan, AVC offers an edge to home buyers and property investors as well as the various businesses that will be blossoming in this appealing destination.

“We believe all the commercial activities in AVC will create a new vitality and further stimulate the already vigorous economic activities in the state,” he says.

Murly says over 2,000 units of residential units have been planned for AVC and to date about 1,200 homes have been delivered with over 80% sold.

The price range of the properties during the launch was between RM400,000 and RM600,000.

The joint venture partners have invested RM105 mil in the first phase of the Central Island Park project.

That includes the land cost and softscape such as flower plants, shrubs, trees, flower beds and landscaping.

They will invest another RM45 mil for the second phase of the park in the next five years, he says.

Murly points out that with the opening of the park, people are already using it for recreational activities.

“We are getting phone calls from people asking if they can use the park for wedding photos,” he laughs.

Rojkjaer says the same is true for IKEA with requests from various quarters asking if they could take a study tour of the work site.

“We have taken a number of people on such tours as this helps build a good rapport with the community,” he says.

IKEA Batu Kawan, with its 433,000 sq ft of space, will offer well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them, he says.

The showroom will feature dozens of inspirational room settings, a market hall to provide everything from cookware to candles and a restaurant that will serve the store’s signature Swedish meatballs.

A feature will be a supervised children’s play area to give parents the time to shop with everything in the store available to be taken home the same day, he says.

Christian Olofsson, shopping centre and mixed-use development director of IKEA Southeast Asia, says the shopping centre, which will be integrated to the IKEA store like all its other outlets, is progressing on track.

“We have a name for the shopping centre which will be revealed at a later date. It is a name in Swedish whose meaning will be synonymous with Batu Kawan,” he says.

The IKEA in Mutiara Damansara is integrated with the recently rebranded IPC, while IKEA in Cheras is allied with MyTown Shopping Centre and IKEA in Johor with Toppen Shopping Centre.

“The shopping centre in Batu Kawan will be connected to the other mixed developments in AVC, making the journey from home to shop to offices and other lifestyle amenities as convenient and seamless as possible.

“IKEA Batu Kawan and the shopping centre will become a real community hub – a meeting place that provides a fun day out for the many people of northern Malaysia,” says Rojkjaer.

Marriott AVC

Marriott AVC has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Marriott International, appointing Aloft Hotel as the hotel operator for AVC.

Aloft Hotel in AVC will be the first international branded hotel in Batu Kawan offering 308 rooms within a 30-storey tower. The hotel is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2023, says Murly.

Catering to modern travellers and holiday makers, the amenities and facilities of the hotel include a swimming pool, fitness centre, meeting rooms, ballrooms, restaurants and bar, says Marriott International (Asia Pacific) development director Andree Susilo.

The four-star hotel will be sited in a mixed development and integrated with Vogue Lifestyle Residence, Vogue Piazza and office suites, he says.

It will also have direct access to the regional integrated shopping centre and IKEA Batu Kawan.

He notes that the hotel can also tap into Batu Kawan’s industrial zone as there is no upscale hotel in close proximity as yet.

Stunning Skyline of Penang Island

Mesmerizing aerial view of George Town and beyond at dusk on Penang Island

The ever changing skyline of Gurney Drive with the huge reclamation project taking place in the foreground.

The vibrancy of Pulau Tikus and Gurney Drive.

Penang's New Waterfront In The Making

Reclamation works of Phase 2 Queensbay Waterfront is 100% complete!

 

Penang's Top 13 Skyscrapers

Out of the 13 tallest buildings in Penang, 8 of them are residential apartments.

 

Gurney Drive Skyline

Urban Residences In Penang

This place was once occupied by squatters. Few have ventured into the interior of the urban villages except for those who resides there. It was also thought to be the place where most local gangsters live.

However, due to the ever increasing demand of housing where every square foot of land is as precious as gold, the only solution to the population explosion is to build up.

 

Penang Sentral Proposal

Latest computer rendering of the upcoming Penang Sentral project has surfaced recently on the internet and although the design looks plainer than the original bold proposal, it still manage to create a modern and chic atmosphere especially for mainland Penang which is lack of good architectural design.

This project will no doubt revitalize Butterworth which has long fallen into the shadow of George Town in terms of economic and tourism significance.

It is touted to be a new centre of connectivity given that it will be a new hub for integrated transportation, integrating rail, ferry and bus services. 

Penang sentral is designed to be the getaway to the Northern Corridor of Malaysia. Serving as the centre of transportation for Penang and the northern corridor, the hub also integrates retail, commercial and residential development within the planned 6 million square feet of development.

 

Penang International Commercial Centre

Penang International Commercial City is a development that includes service apartment, apartment towers, two hotels, a business-process outsourcing (BPO) tower, a medical centre, shopping mall, and 15,000 sheltered car-parking bays. Developed by Hunza Group, the project will commerce in mid 2017 and to be completed in 2021.

Marriott Gurney Drive

With the rate of high rise development, Komtar will soon lose its status as the tallest building in Penang.