Johor Bahru City Square

Johor Bahru City Square is a shopping centre located in the Central Business district of Johor Bahru. City Square, along with Komtar, are located on Jalan Wong Ah Fook. Due in part to its proximity to the Johor-Singapore Causeway, City Square attracts many shoppers from Singapore. City Square is the tallest building in Johor Bahru.

The building interior consists of five storeys of shopping malls, including a thirty-six storey office block, which is divided into the lower, middle and upper zones. City Square has three floors of basement carpark. Automobiles pay a parking fee of RM1.20 for every hour (or part thereof) of parking time. It has since increased to RM1.60, and subsequently to RM2.00 per hour. The Singapore Visitor Centre, located at level 2, was launched in 2005.

The Government Investment Corporation of Singapore owns 70% of City Squares shares. The remaining shares are divided between the Johor Bahru city council and MBJBT.

Several banks including Maybank, Affin and RHB Bank have opened their branches in City Square. Fast-food outlets such as McDonald's have also done so. The "TOPS" supermarket, previously located at Basement 1, was declared bankrupt in 2002 and "Kapitan Mart" took its place.

City Square has also witnessed other major changes since 1998. Walls facing the direction immediately perpendicular to the shop where the TIMES bookshop at the fourth level was formerly located, made way in 2004-5 to facilitate the construction of additional shops. This zone of the City Square was dubbed "Cyberzone".

New toilets have been installed along the linkway at the second floor of the shopping centre with the overhead bridge over Jalan Tun Abdul Razak in 2004. Users will have to pay a fee of RM0.20 in order to use them. Features of the new toilet included the use of automatic water taps.

The pedestrian bridge which connects the City Square to JB Sentral will be built at the end of 2007.

City Square is also known as the centre of fashion amongst youngsters in Johor Bahru. Every weekend, young people gather in their most stylish and fashionable clothings in similar fashion to those in Bukit Bintang area, Kuala Lumpur or Orchard Road, Singapore. Recently the Mega Pavilion Cinema has been upgraded to Cathay Cinemas with new theaters at both level 5 and level 7.

The biggest Clark Hatch Fitness Center in Malaysia size of 22,000sqft gym started it operation in May 2008 at Level 12 City Square Office Tower. Offering world class fitness facilities.

References

* http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/bu/sk/li/?id=100356&bt=9&ht=2&sro=1
*http://www.clarkhatch-jb.com

External links

* [http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=106046 Emporis profile]
* [http://www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID=20040825-095111-2962r Singapore improving ties with Malaysia]