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The Tun Abdul Razak Complex ( ) is a Civic center of five buildings within the central business district of George Town, Penang. It first opened on 2 December 1976. At the time of its completion in 1985, the central skyscraper of the complex, Komtar Tower, at , was the tallest skyscraper in Southeast Asia. The complex contains of office and retail space on a City block. It is a major bus terminal for Rapid Penang, and the seat of the Penang state government and the chief minister of Penang.
The modernist complex was built between 1974 and 1986 at an initial cost of RM279.5 million (equivalent to RM642.5 million in 2023). The complex was proposed by chief minister Lim Chong Eu in 1969, while his brother Chong Keat designed the complex. It was planned to be built in five phases, although only two were completed in their original form. The remaining three phases were repurposed as Prangin Mall, 1st Avenue, and the Sia Boey Urban Archaeological Park and were built between 1996 and 2019. Renovations in 2015 extended the height of Komtar Tower to .
Described as a "city within a city", the design of the complex was radical and for its time, and was the largest Urban renewal project in Malaysian history. However, it ultimately failed to achieve its objective of rejuvenating George Town's city centre. The construction of the complex was also criticised for demolishing a portion of the city's heritage quarters which displaced thousands of residents. Starting from the late-1990s, the complex was neglected due to insufficient maintenance. Despite these circumstances, Komtar is Penang's most famous landmark and is seen as a symbol of the state's post-industrialisation prosperity.
Adjacent to Sia Boey was Magazine Circus, a roundabout converging on a junction of six major roads. The Malays named it Simpang Enam ("the six-way junction"), while the Chinese called it Go Pha Teng ("the five lamps"), referencing street lamps set up at the junction. In 1928, the first traffic lights in Penang were set up at the roundabout. Sia Boey was severely bombed during Japanese raids during the start of the Malayan campaign, killing hundreds.
Amidst rising discontent, during the 1969 general elections, the ruling Alliance Party led by chief minister Wong Pow Nee was voted out in Penang and replaced by the opposition Malaysian People's Movement Party (Gerakan), with Lim Chong Eu sworn in as chief minister. To address these challenges, Lim established the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) in November 1969 as a development arm of the state government.
As early as 1962, the Penang state government proposed to develop a hawker centre in an area around Prangin Road. Malayan architecture firm Malayan Architects Co-Partnership was contracted for the project, but it stalled within months. PDC designated four sites within George Town in late-1969 as "comprehensive development areas" for urban redevelopment, which included the construction of low-cost flats on reclaimed land and urban renewal programmes. It then created a "central area planning unit" (CAPU) for monitoring residential and highway infrastructural projects in the city, which redesignated the 1962 hawker centre proposal into a civic centre known as the Central Area Redevelopment Plan, the precursor project of Komtar.
According to Lim Chong Eu, the complex was a "sign of collaboration" between the federal government and Penang. It was given priority in the New Economic Policy championed under the administration of Abdul Razak Hussein, who said that this project "will change the outlook of George Town from a colonial heritage to a city reflecting a Malaysian society".
Plans for a civic centre in central George Town were announced publicly as early as 18 November 1970 as the Penang Urban Centre. The state government selected Singaporean architectural firm Architects Team Three (AT3) for the CAPU, with Lim Chong Eu's brother Chong Keat as its lead architect. Arup Group was selected as the Civil engineer and structural engineer.
Although Lim Chong Keat established his reputation in Singapore through the Jurong Town Hall and the OUE Downtown, the selection was accused of being nepotism. Consultation fees for all development firms in the CAPU including AT3 amounted to RM4.8 million in 1974, a figure disputed by opposition politicians who alleged that RM10 million was paid to AT3 alone. Throughout 1971, the CAPU conducted extensive planning studies for the project. A report dated August 1972 noted that the project should be located on a site bounded by Penang Road, Prangin Road, Magazine Road and Beach Street, with parking for 3,000 vehicles. Academics from the University of Penang and a traffic consultant provided additional input for the project.
Lim Chong Keat designed the entire complex in five phases, where the main structure occupies the first two. Location-wise, it was designed to link with a then-proposed coastal highway system that leads southwards to a Penang Bridge and the Penang International Airport. Construction of the first phase was projected to raise the total revenue in the region from RM114,000 in 1974 to RM3 million in 1984, which was planned as funds for maintenance and upkeep for the complex's amenities.
The complex's podium was designed to rejuvenate George Town's declining inner-city economy with a Western-style shopping mall for middle-class residents from the city's outer suburbs. The shopping mall contained of retail space. Elsewhere, the podium houses a Bus station, a public theater, a national archives, a police and fire station, and a rooftop indoor orchid garden with a Reflecting pool. A hotel for travelers was planned at the third floor. Six pairs of are installed in the podium.
The geodesic dome, influenced by the designs of Buckminster Fuller, a special consultant of the CAPU, is positioned above the podium directly adjacent to the reflective pool. The dome is in diameter, and contains a multipurpose hall with 1,875 seats. It was designed as a column-free structure made from aluminum prefabricated from computer designs. The interior of the dome is covered with K-13 spray foam for better indoor acoustics.
Initial plans for the skyscraper involved a 12-sided cylinder column 45 or 47 stories tall in two stages. It contained of office space. The foundations of the skyscraper are designed to support 60 storeys for potential extensions, which became the actual height reported in promotional materials as early as 1975. Thirty-two Elevator are fitted in the complex, including 24 in the skyscraper, each capable of travelling at per minute.
Demolition works at acquired sites involved 769 houses, 304 shops, 14 factories, four cinemas, three schools, a vehicles' office, a post station and a fire station. The process evicted 3,175 residents to the city's outer suburbs, including Jelutong, Bayan Baru and the PDC-funded Macallum Street Ghaut. The Magazine Circus and most of Gladstone Road was removed. By 1973, the state government projected the total cost of the entire complex at RM200 million (RM1.04 billion in 2023 value); phase one at RM77.6 million, with RM40.8 million allocated for the skyscraper. The call of tender for the project's construction concluded in December 1973.
Construction of phase one was carried out in four stages (phases 1AD). Phase 1A, the four-storey retail podium, was planned to be completed by October 1976. It received a soft opening on 2 December 1976. Piling works for phase 1B, an extension of the podium and the central skyscraper began in November 1975. It was initially expected that the next three stages would be completed by September 1978, 1979, and 1980 respectively, with the skyscraper topping out in 1981. However, the complex suffered repeated delays, with phase 1B delayed to July 1979 and again to June 1980. Starting from late-1975, hampered by delays, building costs inflated dramatically, with costs rising almost 15 per cent annually as delays progressed. The initial budget for phase one had risen to RM136.2 million by May 1975, and to RM151.8 million by September 1979. Similarly, construction of the central skyscraper was delayed, as stage one (up to the 29th storey) was scheduled for completion by September 1981, and stage two (29th47th storey) by February 1983. In January 1983, construction moved to phase two. It was carried out in five stages (phases 2AE), including an electric substation (phase 2A), a department complex (phase 2B), an 11-storey car park with 750 parking spaces (phase 2C), a geodesic dome (phase 2D) and an rooftop garden above the podium (phase 2E). The total cost of the second phase was estimated at RM110 million in 1983. A further RM7 million was allocated for the geodesic dome. However, work was abruptly halted when a major fire broke out on the tower between 23 and 24 January, which gutted the 41st to 47th floors. The fire was reportedly visible across the Penang Strait at Perai, and required the mobilisation of fire fighting units as far as Nibong Tebal. Later investigations determined that the fire was likely started by welding sparks.
Construction resumed by mid-1983, reaching the 60th floor by 1984. The skyscraper structurally Topping out at the 65th floor on 1 January 1985. In May 1985, plans for the apartment blocks were scrapped and replaced with a single hotel building. The hotel opened as the Shangri-La Inn in 1986. The main framework for the geodesic dome was completed and inaugurated in July by Tunku Abdul Rahman. In mid-1990, a pedestrian mall was constructed as the final adjoining part of phase two, occupying half of Maxwell Road and the Prangin Canal, forcing the remnants of the adjacent Prangin Road to merge into a one road. By 1990, the total cost reached RM279.5 million (RM642.5 million in 2023 value).
In early-1992, the project was scaled down to a five-storey department complex with of built-up area, 240 parking spaces and 650 staff. Preparation of Metro Plaza began in 1992 with the demolition of the Capitol Theatre and ten other businesses which sat at the site, while construction was projected to complete within three years. The site remained dormant by 1995 and it was only in 1996 that talks of construction resumed. However, it was cancelled after the Asian financial crisis in late-1997.
In November 1996, the state government issued a construction ban of all structures beyond five storeys within the city-centre, threatening phase three's cancellation. An updated proposal submitted in 1997 featured a RM170 million 10-storey shopping complex named Mutiara Parade. Construction was scheduled for late-1996 and expected to finish in 1999. However, all construction was suspended in February 1997 due to concerns of unstable soil influenced by flaws in foundational works for Prangin Mall nearby. Construction never resumed and was cancelled amidst the Asian financial crisis in late-1997.
The cancellation of Mutiara Parade suspended any construction at the site until October 2007, when construction began on 1st Avenue, an 11-storey shopping mall. The development, costing RM300 million, was modeled after Raffles City Singapore. Construction was completed in June 2010 and inaugurated on 25 November 2010.
As a response, the Penang state government requested a geotechnical report from Prangin Mall's developers, although it did not reach state officials until February 1997. On 30 January, citing the developers' failure of compliance, Ikram issued a stop work order on Prangin Mall. The order was expanded to phase three, noting similar circumstances. At its worst, three hundred houses were affected, while the incident has since been described as a "crisis" or a "disaster".
In March 1997, the developers submitted three mitigation measures to the state government. Mitigation works began in April and lasted for 53 days, costing the developers RM6 million. After mitigation works were complete, the state government lifted the stop work order for Prangin Mall in June under a 20-point agreement. Construction was finally complete in mid-2000 and opened in 2001.
In 2002, phase five was planned as an interchange terminal of the Mutiara line, a proposed Light rail running along Penang Island. In anticipation of future construction, Sia Boey Market closed in 2004, even though the site remained abandoned for years, due to uncertainties in the light rail transit project.
In 2012, a proposal intended to rebrand phase five into an arts district known as the "Penang Heritage Square". It featured the construction of a five-storey cultural centre with complete restoration of heritage shophouses nearby. This project was however unsuccessful, being relocated to Macallum Street Ghaut in 2016 due to a revival of the Bayan Lepas line. Eventually, a park known as the Sia Boey Urban Archaeological Park began construction in 2015 and was completed in 2019, costing RM29.1 million. The park, which occupied a disused section of the Prangin Canal, opened for public use on 9 November 2019.
In May 2023, the federal government rebranded the Bayan Lepas line as the Mutiara line, which includes a Komtar station as the receiving end of an elevated rail bridge across the Penang Strait towards Seberang Perai. Construction of the station was originally planned for early-2024, but was delayed to September or October 2024, with an expected completion date of 2030.
Attempts of renovation in Komtar were difficult as the state government only owned one-third of all retail units in the complex. The remaining tenants were purchased and owned by private businesses, leading to serious disagreements on rental rates and occupancies. In 2005, the two largest of the complex, Super Komtar and Parkson, ceased operations in rapid succession, decimating Pedestrian in the complex. By 2008, 40 per cent of retailers in the complex had closed down.
With reduced local presence, Komtar received an influx of migrant workers, primarily from Nepal, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Indonesia. The atmosphere within the complex drew similarities with Lucky Plaza in Singapore and Victoria Park in Hong Kong. Different floors of the complex housed individually segmented groups of immigrants of different nationalities, functioning as an agora for the diaspora. The complex is also host to homeless vagabonds, drug users, and vandals. Other developments such as Komtar Walk, launched in 2009 as a pedestrian mall, was plagued by legal disputes and was demolished and rebuilt in 2019.
Several renovations were undertaken during the mid-2000s, including one in October 2007 which cost RM10 million, and an RM15 million renovation project in April 2008 which refurbished the podium. In 2010, the Penang state government launched plans to renovate the upper sections of the skyscraper. The revitalisation effort, known as The Top, was launched in December 2012, costing RM180 million. As part of the effort, three new floors were constructed, increasing the skyscraper's height to . A Komtar Skywalk, three bubble lifts, and a rope course were added in 2018.
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In July 1980, Komtar's first major office sale occurred when the federal government bought of office space. Between December 1982 and January 1984, the Penang state government spent RM45 million buying of office space, occupying 17 storeys of the skyscraper.
In 1983, the Penang Municipal Council was forced to move to Komtar by the state government even though its offices at City Hall were sufficient, leading to opposition within the council. This decision, costing RM20 million, relocated the council's offices to of office space between the 12th and 17th floors. In 1984, chief minister Lim Chong Eu moved his offices into the 28th floor. By February 1985, occupancy reached the 33rd floor. In 1986, the offices of the Penang state government, which had been located at the Tuanku Syed Putra Building since 1962, moved to Komtar permanently. By 1990, RM162.7 million worth of office space were sold.
In July 1992, an indoor golf club, reportedly the first in Malaysia, opened at the 56th floor. In 2008, Telekom Malaysia occupied the 58th floor as a call centre. Similarly, before 2015 the 64th floor had been rented by telecommunication companies to install their equipment. In 2020, nine federal agencies moved into Komtar under the Urban Transformation Centre at the second and third floors, occupying of office space.
Between 2014 and 2016, the top floors of Komtar Tower were rebuilt in an extension program known as The Top, which includes the addition of three upper stories and a complete overhaul of all publicly accessible portions of the complex. A new observatory deck, Window of the Top, was constructed at the 65th floor while an open-air deck was built at the 68th floor. Window of the Top, which stood at a height of , was only accessible through an express lift on the 5th floor. Visitors could view up to away from the deck, which includes parts of Seberang Perai and Kedah across the Penang Strait.
Other attractions on Window of the Top include a souvenir store and an outdoor rope course. The 68th floor, standing at a height of , featured a restaurant called Top View and a semi-circle skywalk which extends beyond the main building.
The Dalit Cinema, operated by the Borneo Film Organisation, opened on 8 August 1981 as Komtar's first anchor tenant. Super Komtar opened on 6 December 1986 as the first department store in the complex. At the end of the 1980s, it became one of the most profitable and popular department stores in the country.
Japanese retail group Yaohan opened at Komtar in November 1988, becoming its first major foreign tenant. It had a staff of 350 and occupied an area of . The first Pizza Hut and White Castle outside of Kuala Lumpur opened at Komtar in January 1989 and on 14 June 1989 respectively. Singaporean bookstore chain Popular Holdings opened at the complex on 7 August 1991, which operated until 28 November 2021. In 1992, both Yaohan and Metrojaya mooted the idea of building separate department complexes under phase 2E and phase three of the complex, but were never built.
On 30 December 1997, Yaohan rebranded itself as Aktif Lifestyle after its Japanese parent company went bankrupt. Aktif Lifestyle faced financial difficulties and in 2004 the store was acquired by Parkson as Parkson Aktif. The department store closed in 2005. It was replaced by the ICT Digital Mall, which opened on 1 September 2010 as a "tech plaza". Super Komtar ceased operations on 9 March 2005 before re-opening as Pacific Hypermarket on 17 December 2008. In 2009, a large section of the podium was renovated into a pedestrian mall known as Komtar Walk, but failed to attract visitors and was abandoned in 2019 due to legal disputes between its operator and state authorities. The mall was demolished and rebuilt in January 2023.
Previously, the main interchange station at the city was the Prangin Road Bus Station. The station served as the terminal for private bus companies such as the Hin Company, the Lim Seng Seng Company and the Yellow Bus Company. However, it shut down in 1990 for future developments along the Prangin Canal.
Throughout the late-1980s and 1990s, the terminal was consistently criticised for poor cleanliness and maintenance, with a reputation of frequent mugging and robberies. These criticisms were part of a wider negative sentiment against the state of public transport in Penang at the time.
The introduction of state operator Rapid Penang in July 2007 superseded the private bus companies, eventually operating the entire terminal. For decades, the bus terminal had been a place of congregation for Vagrancy and the homeless, but since September 2023 they have been relocated to nearby state-funded homeless shelters. Currently, the terminal serves the 11, 12, 101, 102, 103, 104, 201, 202, 203, 204, 206, 301, 302, 303, 304, 401, 401E, 502, CAT and CT14 bus routes of Rapid Penang.
Since the early 2000s, Komtar has been proposed to contain a Komtar station of potential light rail transit and monorail lines, such as the Mutiara line, the Tanjong Tokong line, and the Ayer Itam line. It is proposed that construction of the station would start in September or October 2024, with an expected completion date of 2030. Komtar is also the terminal station for the proposed George Town tram line.
Throughout its construction the project was marred by cost issues. During preparations in 1972, the compensation provided by the state government for displaced residents was described as insufficient. While the entire complex of five phases was to be given a budget of RM200 million, government sources in September 1975 suggested that phase one alone cost over RM300 million. A magazine in February 1976 alleged a total cost of RM500 million, putting doubts on the state's capabilities to finance the entire project. In 1990, the government reported a cost of RM279.5 million (RM642.5 million in 2023 value), with a revenue of only RM185 million (RM425 million in 2023 value).
After its completion, criticisms shifted to gentrification. In 1979, Kampong Kolam state representative Ooi Ean Kwong said that "most people at Komtar go there to pay their electricity bills, not shopping." American architect Victor Papanek predicted that Komtar would fail and "become an eyesore", creating congestion and pollution in the city centre. Other accusations include Komtar being a "monument" to Lim Chong Eu's tenure as chief minister, such as a remark from opposition politician Karpal Singh who described Komtar as "Dr. Lim's Taj Mahal".
The initial occupancy rates in the complex's office block have led Lim Kit Siang to describe Komtar and the contemporary Dayabumi Complex as "". This was reflected by poor sales of office space in the complex, which was impacted by severe office space gluts in Penang in 1984. While local, state, and federal offices occupied the lower portions of Komtar Tower, the sale of "high-zone" office space to private sectors was reportedly "not encouraging" by 1985.
Some critics in retrospect viewed Komtar as a failure, having achieved none of its desired objective of replacing dilapidating city slums in George Town with modernised city blocks. Furthermore, the subsidence controversy over Prangin Mall's construction in 1997 led to calls for the project's cancellation by residents over concerns on its damage towards historical structures nearby.
Starting from the 1970s, the city centre suffered from mass depopulation from displacements of entire neighbourhoods and businesses directly caused by Komtar's construction. With the rise of the service industry in Penang after its industrialisation in the 1980s, Komtar's status as a large, centralised financial district decimated smaller, traditional businesses in the city centre. The irreversible changes towards the city centre following Komtar's completion was cited as one of the factors leading to a rise of heritage preservation movements in Penang. In 1986, the Penang Heritage Trust was founded, and in 1989 the first heritage conservation enactments were passed in the state legislature. These efforts culminated in the establishment of a conservation zone, involving a "heritage core zone" and a "buffer zone" inscribed by UNESCO in 2008, which banned any alterations to all historic structures in George Town's urban core.
Komtar was a centrepiece under the ideal Wawasan 2020, which encouraged urban construction and renewal throughout Malaysian cities, leading to a development boom. The historic quarters became very susceptible to demolition and removal like those of Komtar. Private development applications in Penang peaked in the mid-1990s, before the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis in 1997.
Despite the circumstances, the Penang state government has never undertaken any urban redevelopment programmes within the historic quarters since Komtar. Instead, they opted for land reclamation. This strategy, first employed in the expansion of the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone in the late 1970s, allowed state authorities to skip negotiations and avoid overly complicated resettlement agreements, thereby reducing acquisition costs. From 1980 to 2000, almost all of George Town's east coast was reclaimed, and by 2015 total reclaimed land in the city was estimated to be in area.
Architecture-wise, Komtar was Penang's first major modernist structure and served as an important example of modernist architecture in Southeast Asia. The complex was reflective of Malaysia's post-independence period in the 1960s with the construction of modernist landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament (19591962), the National Mosque (19631965), and the Stadium Negara (19601962) which intended to replace traditional architectural styles with bold and modern designs. The geodesic dome was noted as Buckminster Fuller's last significant architectural contribution in Southeast Asia.
Komtar's layout and design were radical and for its time. However, while modernist structures in Malaysia were built to expel and erase the country's colonial past, Komtar was built as a unique expression of critical regionalism, where its modernist elements were incorporated in a way to resonate with George Town's entrenched colonial history. Despite this, Komtar lacked enough local appreciation for its regionalist characteristics, and was rejected by the populace for being too radical and impractical. Komtar's failure to revitalise George Town has become a notable case study for failed architectural experiments.
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