Asia City

Kompleks Asia City

is newly completed. It is situated just across the road to Centre Point Sabah. Besides the usual food and beverage outlets there is a skating rink – KAC Skating Rink located on the fourth floor. It is open for business daily. This is the only mall housing a skating rink.

Asia City project to be nucleus for expansion
20 December, 2005
Kota Kinabalu: The Asia City Urban Development Project, which currently involves three new commercial complexes including Star City and two 3-Star hotels, is set to become the nucleus for economic and business expansion in the State capital.

Being developed by A.C. Property Development Sdn Bhd in a joint venture with Sedco and SUDC on 24 acres of prime commercial land at Singgah Mata here, the multi-million project comprising two phases is expected to be completed by end of 2007.

It will be another impressive landmark, with a tourism-related and people-friendly concept, in the city centre.

The Phase I development, which was carried out in two stages on 9.8 acres since 1984, comprising 34 units and 54 units of 4 storey shops respectively, was completed in 1993 and 1994.

It included a 70 feet wide open air walkway Plaza Mall which is located between the 9 blocks of shops.

Chairman and Managing Director of A.C. Property Development, Dr Ting Ing Chew, said they are currently concentrating on the Phase II development comprising three Phase 2A, 2B and 2C, respectively, on another 14.2 acres of land.

He said this includes the construction of Complex Asia City under Phase IIA, a 5-storey commercial complex surrounded by shops/offices at the perimeter, which is expected to be completed by end of 2005.

The centre court of this complex, for which the floor area is 180,000 square feet, will have a shopping arcade and food court.

Its 4th and 5th floors will be used for car parks, with a total of 750 parking bays.

Ting said the Phase IIB development comprises a 12-storey hotel called Romancia Palace Hotel and a 4-storey commercial complex, Starhill Parade, expected to meet completion by end of 2007.

Romancia Palace is designed as a 3-Star boutique hotel whilst Starhill Parade will be a one-stop shopping centre for designers and branded products. "The banquet hall to be built on the top floor of the complex will be able to accommodate 1,500 guests. Two levels of basement will also be built to provide 300 parking bays," he said.

Phase IIC development will see the construction of Complex Star City, a 9-storey complex located at the superb commercial zone of Kota Kinabalu in between two main roads into and out the city, Jalan Abdul Rahman and Jalan Tun Razak.

Ting said it will be interesting because development of this complex, which is currently in progress and has is about 25 per cent complete, will also see a dual carriageway being constructed to link up these two main roads.

Complex Star City, being built on an area behind the Chung Hwa School and fronting Api Api Commercial Centre, has a built up area of over 1.37 million square feet. Some 449,288 square feet of this are meant for sale while the rest are for rental.

"We are happy with the tremendous response received from buyers and tenants of the units offered at this complex. About 55 per cent of the overall total saleable area in Star City are already sold out so far, selling very well at about RM90 million," he said.

Likewise the rental area, for which about the same percentage has been already booked, he added. Ting said the anchor tenant would be Everrise Supermarket and Department Store Sdn Bhd which has taken a total floor area of 121, 075 square feet for 5 floors (from the Lower Ground floor to the 3rd floor).

This company will introduce a first of its kind a fully air-conditioned and cleaner wet market, where fish will also be sold. This is expected to be the biggest such outlet in East Malaysia.

He said other areas in the shopping arcades are for branded products and fashion, goldsmiths, jewellery, clock and watch shops, pharmacies, shoe shops and the latest fittings, cameras and arts and crafts, food court and eight restaurants each specialising in Japanese, Thailand, Chinese cuisine and so on, snookerium, seven cinemas and a bowling alley of 38 lanes.

Also there will be 1,311 parking bays provided at this one-stop shopping centre. "It will be the landmark for Kota Kinabalu City," said Ting.

According to him, City Hall (DBKK) has also approved a Link Bridge to be built over and across the dual carriageway to link up the first floor of Phase IIA (Complex Asia City) and Phase IIC (Star City).

The first floor of the Link Bridge will be meant for commercial retail shops and the second floor will be a unique roof-top open air garden of about 40,000 square feet, he said, adding that construction work has started in March this year and expected to be fully completed by end of 2007.

All units will be issued separate Strata Titles of 99 years Town Lease. "The Phase II development of Asia City is a coordination with the government's tourism policy and in response to the call to establish a tourist city, with a crystallised concept of a big commercial activities, food courts and food centres with entertainment and recreational centres all provided under one-roof," said Ting.

All these complexes and hotels will also be equipped with handicapped-friendly facilities including ramps and special toilets for people from this group, besides being pedestrian-friendly.

Upon the completion of this project by end of 2007, based on its strategic location for commercial and tourism-related activities, he is certain that the business potential and property value will continue to appreciate.

Ting said the construction of the two said 3-Star hotels that will consist of 677 rooms in all will start immediately upon the completion of the Phase IIC development.

"With the completion of this two hotels, which is expected to be in 2008, we will have three hotels in Asia City itself including a budget hotel currently in operation," he said, adding this is part of their support to the growth of the State's tourism industry.

The 677 hotel rooms constitutes about 22.5 per cent of the total 3,000 hotel room requirement in the city by the year 2010 as stated by Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat.

All-year-round ice skating rink in KK soon
07 March, 2007
Kota Kinabalu: AC Property Development Sdn Bhd will introduce all-year-round ice skating at its Kompleks Asia City, here, soon.

The developer of the Asia City Urban Development Project will be opening a 378 square metre (4,116 square feet) Smart Ice Skating Rink - Malaysia's largest and East Malaysia's first - on the fourth floor of the newly-opened shopping complex.

The total area of this skating arena, to be installed by a Swiss-based rink manufacturer, Smart Ice Sdn Bhd, using its Smart Ice Arena technology, would be 13,000 square feet. Work is expected to be completed by the end of April this year in time for the complex's official opening on May 5.

Announcing this during a press conference held at the AC Property Development Sdn Bhd's office at Asia City here Tuesday, its Chairman/Managing Director Dr Ting Ing Chiew said they were spending close to RM1.5 million on this project.

"The Smart Ice Skating Rink would be in line with the concept of Kompleks Asia City that prioritises good family entertainmentÉthis is a form of family entertainment where parents can either enjoy with their children, or watch them from the side of the arena, or while they are doing their shopping," he said.

Saying the complex management will provide facilities for parents or guardians to sit near the arena and enjoy quality time watching the children having fun in the arena, he hoped this would provide for another choice for youngsters in Sabah to have fun in a healthy way, rather than just playing video games and so on.

Dr Ting said the interesting thing about this Smart Ice Skating Rink is that it would be the first Smart Ice Arena in the country to remain open permanently (stay operational throughout the year) and self-operated, unlike arenas at the shopping malls in the peninsula which are the mobile version.

The mobile version of Smart Ice Arena, which all are smaller in size, are opened only for certain periods, for instance three months, and would be opened at a rented section of a shopping mall and for the next three months it would be closed.

Once completed, the Smart Ice Skating Rink at Kompleks Asia City will be able to accommodate up to 130 people at a time.

Also present were Smart Ice Arena's Regional Manager for Asia Pacific, Filippo Gervasini, AC Property Development Secretary-Director, Song Chee Yee, and Kompleks Asia City's General Manager, Vincent C.P. Ng, among others.

The Smart Ice Arena, which is popular especially among youngsters in the peninsula, is a revolutionary system that simulates the characteristics of real ice but allows customers enjoy the same pleasure of ice-skating called 3S (Smart Skating System) that combines the features of both ice-skates and roller skates and is user-friendly.

It is the result of over 30 years of experience in the research and development of new materials, combined with 20 years of expertise in the management of traditional and artificial ice skating rinks.

To date, Smart Ice Arena has appeared more than 100 times across 16 countries, with rink sizes ranging from 700 to 10,000 square feet, both indoor and outdoor. Its mobile version has also appeared in Mid Valley Mega Mall (KL), Berjaya Times Square (KL), Era Square (Seremban), SACC Mall (Shah Alam), The Mines Shopping Fair (Seri Kembangan) and currently in Bangsar Shopping Centre (KL).

Established in 2005 with its regional headquarters in Petaling Jaya, Smart Ice Sdn Bhd is an Italian-Swiss-Malaysian joint venture. Smart Ice Arena was first introduced in this country on March 8 last year.