the biggest mall in Kuching, Malaysia

hey toshirocsy,this is what I found out: A new shopping mall, promising to be different, exciting and vibrant and based on the design of shopping malls popular in Australia and New Zealand, is to take pride of place on a 12-acre site in a thriving enclave of Kuching in Sarawak. But more than just a retail project, it marks the city’s coming of age. With a population of 600,000 today but a retail environment “far behind that of similar-sized cities even in Peninsular Malaysia”, the mall, named The Spring, aims to bring a bounce into the State’s capital. “We want to provide a lifestyle that can properly cater to retail requirements and at the same time, focuses on meeting consumers’ needs,” said James Ling, director of The Spring developer PSB Realty Development Sdn Bhd and managing director of its parent company, Perbena Emas Sdn Bhd. “For over 12 months, we studied the catchment within five, 10 and 15 minutes’ drive from The Spring, geo-coded the population and income distribution and measured the total average income to understand the size and spread of our market. “For the first time here, a developer is focusing on creating a centre that truly fits the Kuching market by giving shoppers the things they desire, and retailers the things they want,” he said. Situated along a main thoroughfare in a high profile neighbourhood of South Kuching, the two-storey mall will have 350,000sq ft of nett lettable space and 1,500 car-parking bays, with entrances/exits from all four directions. The RM150 million project, slated for completion by November next year, was designed by a New Zealand-based architectural firm, Warren & Mahoney, which has a strong influence on retail outlet concepts and the built environment in that country. “When completed, it is poised to be the premier shopping mall in the region and as good, if not better, than the best that Peninsular Malaysia has to offer,” said Datuk Sri Wong Soon Koh, Sarawak’s Minister of Finance II and Minister of Tourism and Urban Development. “With The Spring, sophisticated lifestyle shopping will have arrived for the people of Sarawak. “It takes enterprising, creative people to do this. With The Spring, a new retail formula has come to Kuching - it is now proactive, innovative and creative instead of being familiar and competitive,” said Wong, who performed the project launch ceremony at a city hotel. The retail consultants for The Spring, Kuala Lumpur-based Regroup Associates, flew a team of retailers, journalists and other guests to Kuching for the ceremony to mark the launch of what the firm described as “the next big thing in retail”. Commending Perbena Emas chairman and PSB Realty advisor Tan Sri Temenggong Tai Sing Chii as “the visionary behind The Spring”, Wong said it would give Sarawakians as well as visitors to the State a rewarding shopping experience, with a wide range of retail choice. This would also make the city “more liveable”. “We’ve had complaints from Arab tourists in particular about Kuching – that unlike KL, it lacks the shopping attractions they want,” added Wong, who spoke off-the-cuff and said The Spring to him would mean “serving people readily in new grandeur”. Perbena Emas, builder of The Spring, is a construction company incorporated in 1977 and the shopping mall is its maiden venture into property development, on a site it purchased 12 years ago. Both Perbena Emas and PSB Realty come under Pan-Sarawak Co Sdn Bhd, which started off in the timber trade and then moved on to building and construction materials and air-conditioning supplies. The group has carried out major building and infrastructure work in Sarawak, including civil structure work for the Malaysia Liquified Natural Gas plant in Bintulu, the Sarawak General Hospital in Kuching as well as the Hock Lee Centre and Wisma STA, also in Kuching. The firm has a good reputation in the State and is known for completing its projects on time. According to Regroup Associates managing director Allan Soo, with five main shopping centres in Kuching recording 20 million visits a year, the city promises to be a truly dynamic market that will, for the time being, be second only to the Klang Valley. He said 80 per cent of the major retailers interviewed in the Klang Valley, where retail space works out to 5.8sq ft per person, want to be in Kuching. Soo added: “The retail sector is basically driven by numbers, by design and by market forces … retailers will certainly look into new concepts put into the market, especially so in a city like Kuching, which is undersupplied with just 1.5sq ft of retail space per person.”

has anyone been to the Sping? It was kinda disappointing to me, cause well... as expected, it's kinda small. Actually, it felt like a mini MidValley for me when I entered it.