User:Two hundred percent/Dirtbox/Mid Valley City

Mid Valley City (also occasionally spelled as MidValley City) is a 50-acre[1] commercial and residential development area in Taman Seputeh, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Mid Valley City currently houses a series of office towers and hotels, as well as Mid Valley Megamall and The Gardens, two major shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur.

History edit

Development planning of Mid Valley City began in 1989 over a tract of land in Taman Seputeh surrounded by Jalan Syed Putra and Klang River, just north from the Federal Highway. The land was previously occupied in part by apartially by several low-rise apartments and several rows of terraced houses, ++Verify earlier history++ before they were cleared in preparation of construction.

The project was developed in several phases. The first phase of construction commenced in 1995 for the construction of Mid Valley Megamall, a large shopping centre, and two commercial towers on the eastern half of the development area in 1999. Buildings completed during the period were all given a yellowish exterior, which stuck to present. The western end was temporarily left vacant and used as an open air car park.

The second phase of the project involved the addition of seven skyscrapers along the edge of the Megamall and other vacant space over the course of the early 2000s. The buildings adopted a more modernised appearance of glass and steel, gradually assuming more radical designs as time progressed. The third and latest phase of construction is of a mixed-use wing, The Gardens, commencing on the western vacant land in 2005.

Buildings edit

Mid Valley City consists of a total of 19 built structures of different uses and designs. 13 are skyscrapers, while 6 are low-rises.

Shopping centres edit

Mid Valley Megamall edit

The most prominent feature of Mid Valley City is a large shopping mall, dubbed "Mid Valley Megamall", at the eastern side of the development area. The 6 storey mall, completed and openned in 1999, boasts 2.9 million square feet of floor space,[2] and supports 430 specialty stores, 23 junior anchor tenants and 4 anchor tenants. Mid Valley Megamall also contains the Mid Valley Exibition Centre (MVEC), a convention centre with four exhibition halls and a central concourse.

The Gardens edit

The Gardens is the newest segment of Mid Valley City to be opened to the public, beginning operation in September 2007. Located on the western side of Mid Valley City, The Gardens' 4 storey "Retail Gallery" is intended as a more upscale counterpart to the Mid Valley Megamall, branding itself as a "five star upmarket shopping gallery" with four anchor tenants and 200 specialty stores. The Retail Gallery is topped by a "Roof Gardens" that is intended to feature a landscaped setting and dining establishments overlooking the city. An additional four towers of mixed uses adjoining the Retail Gallery and 4500 additional parking bays are also included in the design of The Gardens. The mall contains a gross floor area of 5.9 mil sq ft.

Non-retail projects edit

Besides Mid Valley City's shopping centres, the area also places emphasis on other commercial and residential interests. The present number of operational commercial buildings in Mid Valley City geared primarily towards non-retail tenants totals at about 13, of which 9 are more than 20 storeys high.

Hotels edit

As of September 2007, Mid Valley City houses three operational hotels added in separate periods:

Cititel Mid Valley was openned in 1999 as a 3 star business hotel located on the eastern tip of the Mid Valley Megamall building. In addition to providing basic accommodations, the 27 storey and 646 room hotel boasts a Western and local cuisine restaurant (Citi Cafe), a lounge and bar (Citi Lounge), a health spa, a boardroom and secretarial support, translation services, and broadband Internet access in certain portions of the hotel. The Cititel Mid Valley is the first hotel to be completed and operational in Mid Valley City.
- Gross floor area of 312,000 sq ft

A second hotel, dubbed Boulevard Hotel, was openned in Mid Valley City in 2005 as a 390-room 4 star hotel. The building was constructed on the northwestern tip of the Mid Valley Megamall structure, permitting access to the building via the northern end of the mall from the east alongside its main entrance toward the west.
As is Cititel Hotel, Boulevard adjoins Megamall and has a dedicated entrance at its west side.
- Gross floor area of 340,000 sq ft

A third hotel, Gardens Hotel, a 27 storey, 430 room tower adjoining The Gardens near the centre, is due to begin operation in 2008.

Both the Cititel Mid Valley and the Boulevard Hotel are currently managed by Cititel Hotel Management, a subsidiary of IGB Corporation that owns several hotels in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Pangkor, and Yangon, Myanmar.

Offices and residential buildings edit

The number of offices and residential buildings in Mid Valley City make up a total of 13, five of which were complete during the first phase of construction in 1999 and another six added in 2006 and 2007:

Menara IGB (IGB Tower), a 27-storey office tower located on the southwestern tip of the Mid Valley Megamall building, boasting a gross floor area of 270,000 sq ft. The tower serves as the corporate headquarters of IGB Corporation (on the penthouse level) and offices for Mid Valley City's management (at floor 22). Multinational companies were also mentioned as occupants of Menara IGB, including Volvo, Panasonic and Bates.
The tower was complete in 1999 alongside the Megamall, and thus was designed to be accessible from both the southern end of the mall and from outside.

The Boulevard Office (also known as the "signature offices"), completed in 1999, consists of a row of 4 low-rise offices blocks, all consistently designed with 11 storeys high and containing a gross floor area totalling at 848,000 sq ft. The buildings were built separately from the Mid Valley Megamall, as is the case with The Gardens.

Northpoint Mid Valley City (also referred to in short as Northpoint MVC or Northpoint), a complex of four towers, two of which contain a total of 228 residential apartments (known as the North Residences), and the remaining two containing a total of 204 office suites. The complex also houses 600 parking bays and provides a gross floor area of 1.2 mil sq ft. Completed in 2006, Northpoint is the first development in Mid Valley City to contain residential units.
The complex is located on the northern tip of Mid Valley City within a triangular lot, bordered by KTM's railway tracks, the Klang River and a major thoroughfare cutting between Northpoint and the rest of Mid Valley City. The complex is thus seperated from other projects in Mid Valley City; a footbridge is provided over the road as a linkage between the two areas.

The Centrepoint Towers, two nearly identical commercial towers completed in 2007 and located at the centre of Mid Valley City, attached to the Mid Valley Megamall building from the west with Mid Valley Megamall's main western entrance sandwiched between the towers. The Centrepoint Towers, which are 19 storeys high and contain a gross floor area of 270,000 sq ft each, are further given "north" and "south" designations based on their positions from each other. Accordingly, the towers would be identified as "Centrepoint North Tower" and "Centrepoint South Tower." The North Tower is intended to house executive suites, while the South Tower houses corporate offices.

The Gardens addition added three more office and residential skyscrapers into the complex:

Two identical but unnamed 31-storey "landmark office towers" at the southern and northern edge of the structure, each boasting 500,000 sq ft of net lettable floorspace; and
A 30-storey, 200-unit, "five star" service apartments closer to the centre of The Gardens, dubbed The Gardens Residences.

??? temple edit

++Verify name of temple++

Incorporated into the southeast end of Mid Valley City is the Sri Devi Shakti temple, a single storey Shakta place of worship that existed before Mid Valley City's construction. The temple is the only surviving structure in the area to be completed prior to the creation of Mid Valley City, and the only independent place of worship in the Mid Valley City area.

In exchange for its retention, the temple permitted the right for the developer to build in the airspace above the temple. As of September 2007, the temple's airspace remains unoccupied.

Transport edit

Mid Valley City's site is located along two major thoroughfares in Kuala Lumpur: The Federal Highway to the south and Jalan Syed Putra (Syed Putra Road) to the east. Both roadways were the first to provide transport links to the area, as major redevelopment of older intersections and additions of onramps were made in the initial phase of the development. In the following years, additional onramps were constructed off both roadways, as well as Jalan Bangsar (Bangsar Road) from the northwest. A new ring road surrounding the development, Lingkaran Syed Putra (Syed Putra ring road), was named after Jalan Syed Putra and was completed in conjunction with the first phase of Mid Valley City.

In order to address road traffic problems, a new two platform Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) railway halt serviced by the KTM Komuter commuter train service, the Mid Valley Komuter station, was built over a stretch of straight railway line just east from Mid Valley City between 2003 to 2004 as an alternate transport link to and from the Rawang-Seremban Line. A pedestrian bridge linking the second floor of the mall with the entrance of the station was also added as a sheltered route.

A Kelana Jaya Line station, the Abdullah Hukum LRT station, is also located west from Mid Valley City, across the Klang River, Kampung Haji Abdullah Hukum and a Port Klang-bound KTM railway line, resulting in its generally inaccessibility to Mid Valley City despite its close proximity to the development. The station was critised for its lack of connectivity to the Mid Valley City, but was identified as a potential component of a new Mid Valley wing post-2008 (see #Future expansions).

Buses
Congestions

Future expansions edit

Despite increasing size, Mid Valley City is intended to include more expansions following the completion of The Gardens. Master plans have confirmed the planned completion of another convention centre on the southern parcel of the area to enhance Mid Valley City's capacity to hold conventions or functions.

A third wing of Mid Valley City is also planned on the site of Kampung Haji Abdullah Hukum, a tract of land to the west on the opposite side of the Klang River. The new wing is to adopt a "greener" design with increase emphasis on floras spread across the wing, as well as radical designs for the few towers to the erected on the site. The new wing is also expected to provide a more direct link to the Abdullah Hukum LRT station, finally bridging Mid Valley City with the Kelana Jaya Line. As of March 2008, Kampung Haji Abdullah Hukum has been partially demolished, confirming the possibility of a redevelopment of the area in the future.

References edit

External links edit

++Put in subsites later++