‘Amended design for Central Plaza’

By BUSINESS TIMES
I-BERHAD, together with partner Central Pattana Plc of Thailand, is set to develop its regional shopping mall in i-City after unveiling the mall’s amended design yesterday.
The change includes the sub-division of the site to provide both companies with separate land titles.
I-Bhd deputy chairman Datuk Eu Hong Chew said the land titles were approved in March by the Selangor government and the companies are expected to receive them within two weeks.
“The 18 acres of land were sub-divided into the Central Plaza mall plot (11.5 acres) and Central Tower land plot (7.5 acres). The mall had to be redesigned so that the various office, residential and hotel towers originally planned to be on top of the mall are all to be relocated to the Central Tower plot,” he said at a media briefing, here, yesterday.
I-Berhad and Central Pattana inked a joint-venture (JV) in July last year to develop the Central Plaza@i-City shopping centre.
The JV involved a 60 per cent stake held by Central Pattana and the balance by I-Berhad.
The mall is a RM580 million investment with 860,000 sq ft of leasable area.
Central Pattana chief development officer Wallaya Chirathivat said the construction of the mall will start in January next year and is expected for completion in 2017.
“This will be the first mall that we will build in Malaysia, which is also the first foreign country that we are venturing into. We chose Malaysia because of its excellent track record in economic management.
“Malaysia today is a major tourism destination and the mall will benefit from this tourism growth,” she said.
Wallaya said the company is talking to a few brands to be brought to the Central Plaza @i-City mall with the announcement expected soon.