Kuala Lumpur’s luxury shopping centre The Starhill has unveiled its new look, after a two-year transformation announced in 2019.
Integrating hospitality into the retail experience, the shopping centre in Kuala Lumpur’s Bukit Bintang retail district has been repositioned as the “Home of the Tastemakers” where customers can shop and stay in a sophisticated home-like setting that offers experiential retail in a cosy, intimate boutique atmosphere.
The new extension is linked with the lower retail area in one vertical seven-floor construction, featuring four floors of experiential retail space and three floors housing 162 hotel rooms under the JW Marriott Kuala Lumpur. More than 1100 rooms are connected to The Starhill by combining JW Marriott Kuala Lumpur and The Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur.
“Our focus is to offer a holistic experience that goes beyond retail and dining, encapsulated in an intimate space with a sense of familiarity where patrons can escape from the hustle and bustle of the city,” said Joseph Yeoh, VP of YTL Land & Development.
“This reinforces The Starhill as the place to be in Bukit Bintang, especially following the unveiling of Taiwanese bookstore Eslite Spectrum after a two-year journey setting up this creative art and cultural destination.”
Defying the conventional mall developer’s mentality of ‘more is better,’ The Starhill is boutique-sized at 28,000sqm of retail space, of which more than 92 per cent is already tenanted, with 30 per cent taken up by food and beverage enterprises.
The Starhill is home to local brands including Apollo Wellness Centre, Biologique Recherche and Opera Cafe, and international labels such as Paul & Shark, Philipp Plein, Roberto Coin, Shiatzy Chen, Stefano Ricci and Tom Ford.
The Eslite flagship, the first in Southeast Asia, opened at The Starhill last week.
Eslite Spectrum Kuala Lumpur, which occupies the entire 6500sqm of Level 1, offers a variety of books in addition to handmade goods and lifestyle brands. With more than 40 locations in Taiwan, including one open 24 hours, and branches in Hong Kong, China, and Japan, Eslite is of the largest retail book chains in Asia.