SHAH ALAM: Until about five years ago, Plaza Perangsang was among the busiest places in Shah Alam. It bustled with shoppers patronising its many stores as well as workers going in and out of the offices located there. But now it is almost empty.

Indeed, the business district of Section 14, Shah Alam’s city centre where Plaza Perangsang stands, is virtually a ghost town. Many of the high rise office buildings and malls in the area are nearly abandoned.

Tucked in a small corner of Plaza Perangsang is a clothier’s stall run by a woman who referred to herself as Kak Habibullah. She’s been there for 10 years.

She said business was booming at first but her clientele had since been reduced by about half. She was making just about enough to pay the rent for her lot, she added.



A clerk at the building’s maintenance and operations office said many who rented the office lots were asked to vacate a few years ago to allow for renovations. “But the renovations never happened,” he said.

Plaza Perangsang is a major landmark in Shah Alam and one of its oldest high-rise commercial buildings. It was opened in 1988.


A board showing the remaining tenants at the Bank Rakyat building in Shah Alam.
The building was designed and constructed by GLC Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Berhad (KDEB) and its subsidiary, Kumpulan Perangsang Selangor Berhad.

In its heyday, it used to house Quality Hotel, the earliest hotel of note in Shah Alam.

Some of the office lots in the higher floors are still occupied, most of them by the Selangor bureau of the Inland Revenue Board.

At Menara Bank Rakyat, a few kilometres away, most of the 23 floors appeared unoccupied. A policeman guarding the building confirmed that many office lots were empty.



Plaza Perangsang and the Umno Selangor tower in Shah Alam, among near-empty high rise buildings in the state capital.
A few hundred metres away, the building for Bank Negara’s Selangor office has been abandoned. “Everybody has moved to Kuala Lumpur,” said the security guard there.

Just around the corner, the Umno Selangor tower suffers a similar fate. There were less than 10 people working in the entire building.

Property expert Ernest Cheong blamed bad planning for the poor occupancy rates.

He said the problem was that the buildings in Section 14 were developed by the state government instead of commercial developers, who, he claimed, would have been better at city planning.


The lobby area at Plaza Perangsang, once bustling with shoppers, is now almost empty.
“There’s not even a pedestrian bridge linking Plaza Perangsang with the nearby PKNS mall,” he noted.

Commenting on the lack of variety in consumer goods at Plaza Perangsang, he said shoppers might not know where else to go if they couldn’t find items they were looking for and the situation was made worse by the absence of pedestrian links in the area.

Munirah Mohammad, a real estate agent specialising in office rentals in Section 14, said poor maintenance of the buildings was one of the reasons for the low occupancy rates.

“These buildings are pretty old, and the ceiling height is very low,” she said.


https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...o-a-ghost-city/
Munirah added that most tenants had moved to newer and better maintained office buildings such as Plaza Azalea, Vista Alam and the Naza Tower.

who the hell say shah alam ghost city ?  kota kemuning 9 clock still jam queue for McD

My comments :  I know Shah Alam quite ok and I sometimes hang out there (with some brothers and sisters. Salam Yo !)  When I read this news about Shah Alam I called my friend who has been in business there for decades. He says it is true.  Business is quite dead and Shah Alam is really quiet.


He says what is a really very bad sign is that even the Pakistani carpet sellers and textile sellers are packing up and going back to Pakistan, despite Pakistan facing so much economic difficulty.  They feel that they stand a better chance back home in Pakistan, compared to Shah Alam. That is how bad things are.  Indonesians who ran businesses have also closed shop and left.

Shah Alam was among Malaysia's first planned cities. That is why it is so well laid out. Another city is Putrajaya.

But there are a couple of fundamental errors in Shah Alam that are now becoming manifest. This will most likely apply to Putrajaya as well.

1. Firstly there is an overconcentration of a Malay population.

Overconcentration of a Malay population does not work well economically anywhere in Malaysia. Just look at the Malay belt states like Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah which have an overwhelming majority of Malays. They are among the poorest states in Malaysia.

The other example is Kampong Bharu in Kuala Lumpur - a Malay only enclave in the middle of super expensive Kuala Lumpur.  Kampong Bharu is not only a terrible eyesore but it is a showcase of failure - the failure to bring the Malays up to speed vis a vis the rest of Kuala Lumpur.

And in all these predominantly Malay majority areas, even the houses, shop houses and buildings do not appreciate that much in value (capital appreciation is kurang). Just like Kampong Bharu in KL. 

So how do you expect Shah Alam to be any different? It is also a predominantly Malay majority area.  In Shah Alam even 20 years ago it was difficult to find non Malay buyers for houses - because most of the neighborhoods are Malay majority.

Non Malays are very few in Shah Alam. And Malay house buyers were also few. I recall a brother took about two years to find a buyer for his house. That was 20 years ago. Things are no better now.

Then there are no cinemas, no entertainment allowed in Shah Alam. Such a boring place. The young kids have little avenue to release their youthful energies. So now there are Mat Rempits who race their motorbikes.

The masjids are becoming more noisy which does not really help with improving the value of your house. If the masjid buys newer, louder 'Barang Buatan Negara Kafir' loudspeakers the value of your houses will go down even more.

2. Secondly (like everywhere else in the country) the Malay population in Shah Alam is overly dependent on the government for its income and survival.

Either directly (through jobs, contracts, projects) or indirectly from the spinoffs of government jobs, contracts and projects.  So when government jobs become limited (because the Malay population is increasing) or government projects and contracts become fewer or not enough (because the Malay population is increasing) then you find that the Malay disposable income can be  severely affected.  I believe this is happening in Shah Alam (just like everywhere else in Malaysia). 

The Malays are overly dependent on the government for their economic survival. Plus the oil price is at or below USD60 per barrel. And after the India debacle the price of palm oil has fallen 11% ? Things are going to get even more difficult.

The net result is that because of the overconcentration of a Malay population in one place, then any economic stress that affects the Malays will become concentrated like a laser beam. This is what is happening in Shah Alam.  The problem becomes more concentrated. Hence this Ghost City story.

All these problems can be fixed super easily. Because they are not universal problems. These are area specific, race specific, language specific and religion specific problems.

Maksudnya orang lain tidak menghadapi masalah yang serupa. Hence it is very easy to fix these types of problems.  But you must know what to do.  Now that is a very big problem - for some.
Posted by Syed Akbar Ali at 10:00:00 PM 48 comments: