This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on October 17, 2022 - October 23, 2022

Departing from our meeting point at Four Points by Sheraton Kuala Lumpur in Chinatown, participants of the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Youth’s (Rehda Youth) Urban Regeneration Tour set off to discover selected regenerated projects in Kuala Lumpur.

On Sept 29, about 50 participants from all over Malaysia, including representatives of developers, architects and engineers, attended the tour, which was spearheaded by organising chairpersons Choy Yuin Yi and Jonah Sia Tiong Hong.

On choosing a suitable theme for this year’s tour, Choy says: “Urban regeneration is a defining phenomenon in cities like Kuala Lumpur that face an increasing population due to labour mobility towards the centre of economic activity. Increasingly, our government and the private sector have realised the challenge faced by our city of increasing demand for land and other resources, and have stepped in to help address the challenge by revitalising unused and underutilised spaces.”

Sia explains the venues for the tour were selected based on the significance of the project.

“As a whole, urban regeneration spurs numerous economic developments, attracts overseas investments and encourages entrepreneurship,” he says.

“Gentrification can lead, however, to some adverse population migration, in which poorer residents are displaced by wealthier newcomers. Therefore, community engagement between developers, architects and residents should be encouraged to define, discover and address social issues pertaining to regeneration.”

The first stop was Bukit Bintang City Centre (BBCC), located between Jalan Hang Tuah and Jalan Pudu. Jointly developed by UDA Holdings Bhd, Eco World Development Group Bhd and the Employees Provident Fund through its joint-venture firm — BBCC Development Sdn Bhd — the 19.4-acre integrated development offers residential suites, hotels and retail outlets as well as an entertainment and transit hub.

Work commenced in 2015 with a gross development value of RM8.7 billion, according to BBCC Development chief operating officer Sri Ram Sivasambu.

The site was previously Pudu Jail, a prison complex built in 1895 by the British. “The site was in operation until 1996, after which the government decommissioned and cleared it. The prison was demolished to make way for other developments, as there were plans to redevelop the site.

“Eventually, BBCC was formed and, today, the main gate and a portion of its walls have been preserved to keep the previous building’s history and heritage. We had to come up with a master plan that incorporates urban regeneration and something that would fit current and future trends. So, we decided to build an integrated development,” says Sri Ram.

BBCC will have six parcels. Parcel 1 consists of Mitsui Shopping Park LaLaport Kuala Lumpur (LaLaport), a retail mall and the future Signature Tower. Parcel 2 has The Stride, a 43-storey strata office tower, an entertainment hub consisting of a 2,500-capacity concert venue named Zepp Kuala Lumpur and a Malaysian entrepreneurial cultural as well as a heritage centre known as the Malaysia Grand Bazaar and an upcoming hotel. Parcel 3 consists of a pair of serviced apartments dubbed Lucentia 1 and 2. Parcel 4 is divided into two; Parcel 4a comprises an upcoming serviced apartment block while Parcel 4b will have an office tower and serviced residence, which are under construction. Lastly, Parcel 5 features SWNK House, a serviced apartment set to be launched soon.

According to Sri Ram, Lucentia 1 and 2 are almost fully taken up and LaLaport’s current occupancy rate is about 60%.

On the challenges of redeveloping the site, Sri Ram says safeguarding the existing buildings in the area as well as the limited construction access from the main roads to the site were among the major concerns.

“The stability and movement of the surroundings had to be controlled carefully so as not to disturb the surroundings. It was very difficult to excavate soil from the city centre, let alone having all these constraints of being surrounded by well-established buildings and facilities. During the peak of construction, there were four major building contractors using only one access. Somehow, we managed without causing damage to the existing infrastructure,” he explains.

The next stop was REXKL, a modern community and cultural hub located on Jalan Sultan. The 60,000 sq ft building is a growing crowd favourite for events, theatre, performances, screenings, facilities, exhibitions, workshops and trendy F&B stalls.

The building occupies the site of one of the first theatres in the country that was built in 1947. After a fire in 1972, the building was rebuilt as Rex Cinema, a single-screen theatre with a seating capacity of more than 1,000, in 1976 and was operated by Shaw Brothers. Later, Golden Screen Cinemas took over but stopped its operations in 2002, when another fire broke out at the premises.

After that, the building was used as a hostel for travellers before it caught fire again in 2007. REXKL co-founder and lead architect Shin Chang says he and a few others were approached by the building’s landlord to take over operations of the building.

While leading us on a tour around the building, Shin says: “The idea of REXKL is primarily related to space experimenting. Since I’m an architect and also run some restaurants, my goal is to bring suitable content into the space and move forward with that.”

REXKL has a total of four floors and two mezzanines on the ground and second floors. The ground and mezzanine floors feature a variety of F&B stalls such as Stellar, Phil’s Pizza, The REX bar, Pastalah and Grun as well as a minimart. The event space, previously the cinema hall, is located on the first floor. The building’s anchor tenant is BookXcess, which occupies the second and mezzanine floors as well as the third floor.

Shin says the key idea is for the whole building to be an arts and culture hub that provides a platform for young artists in Malaysia.

“We initially wanted to work with artists and event organisers only; F&B wasn’t part of the plan. But we figured that F&B would be a great way to attract people. So, we pivoted to include F&B and used the ground floor space, formerly a car park. We call it The Back Ground.

“REXKL started in September 2019, just a few months before the Covid-19 pandemic. We did suffer during the first few months but managed to survive the Movement Control Order. Since entering the endemic phase, we have been fully booked almost every weekend.”

Shin says REXKL complements Petaling Street in more ways than we can imagine. “When we have events, more people visit the area, so REXKL benefits most of the businesses here in Petaling Street. That is the short-term impact we have observed. We have about 10,000 visitors every week, from all over Malaysia, and the main attraction here is the event space, which is primarily rented for music parties, concerts and gigs. The building is also a pet-friendly space, so everyone is welcome.”

REXKL, which stands for Recycle, Empower, X for “crossover”, Knowledge and Learning, will be expanding in the near future.

Shin says: “We’re looking at this as a brand, so we don’t plan to limit ourselves to this building alone. In fact, we’re on the lookout for other locations to reactivate old buildings. We’re planning to expand this brand by the end of the year and urban areas are going to be our focus for now.”

After a short walk through Petaling Street, we found ourselves in the cosy lobby of Else Kuala Lumpur, a hotel located on Jalan Tun H S Lee, which happened to be the tour’s final stop.

The 49-room boutique hotel (rates start from RM540 per night) was co-founded by Justin Chen, the deputy CEO of Singapore-based investment holding company Arcc Holdings Pte Ltd, and Javier Perez, an F&B entrepreneur and founder of the Kilo and Grain Traders brands, which have outlets in Singapore and Los Angeles.

The hotel building, formerly known as the Lee Rubber Building, was constructed in 1930 and designed by Arthur Oakley Coltman of the British architecture firm, Booty Edwards & Partners, known as BEP Akitek Sdn Bhd today.

Preserving the building’s history and architecture was essential to Perez and his team. He says: “What we have wanted to do ever since we set foot in this building was to respect its history. It already had a beautiful structure and we felt it was a gem of an opportunity. The original building had an ivory-white exterior, but by the time we took over, it had become a little yellow with some blue highlights.

“So, we tried to restore its original colour. We went with softer shades of grey to give the building a bit more presence on the corner.

“One of the most beautiful gestures our architects did here was the courtyard concept. All the floors have one-floor plates, and we punched through that to let in natural light and ventilation. You can see all the way down to the restaurant, the library and the living room. We wanted to provide guests with privacy as well as fresh air. We hope guests will feel as if they’ve been transported out of Chinatown, even though they are in Chinatown.”

Perez adds that his team had done market research on Petaling Street before opting to repurpose the Lee Rubber Building into a hotel.

“A key reason we looked at the hotel as a business direction was that we had studied Kuala Lumpur’s property market and there was no five-star hotel in this particular area. The name of the hotel was initially IANU, an etymology of the Roman god, Janus, who represents beginnings and endings.

“About a year later, we found that another hotel had a sub-company called Janus, so we had to rethink the name. We had more than 40 names and Else just stayed through till the end. The name suggests an alternative or something beyond and also this playful curiosity, which we think will be suitable for a concept like Else Kuala Lumpur.”

Wrapping up the tour, Choy says: “The focus of this tour was to shine a light on the amazing things some local developers and stakeholders are doing in their communities to turn unused spaces into liveable, functional and productive spaces, and hopefully inspire some of our Rehda

Youth members [and participants] to do the same in their spheres of influence, as the next generation of pioneers in the Malaysian property development landscape.”

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