BBCC Sales Gallery celebrates Japan festival for a month

KUALA LUMPUR (April 16): To commemorate the sizeable Japanese investments into the landmark Bukit Bintang City Centre (BBCC) here, BBCC Development Sdn Bhd will be hosting a month long Japanese-themed event titled YOKOSO: A Celebration of Japan @ BBCC at the project sales gallery starting today.

"The event, which will run until May 8, is to celebrate our international partnerships with Japanese conglomerates to develop the retail and entertainment components in BBCC," said BBCC Development CEO Datuk Richard Ong at the lighting-up ceremony to mark the launch of the event today. 

BBCC is an RM8.7 billion project coming up on a 19.4-acre parcel that was the former Pudu Jail site and will have a total gross built-up area of 6.7 million sq ft. 

The project – which comprises six blocks of serviced apartments, a retail and entertainment block, a four-star hotel with branded residences, a strata office and an 80-storey three-in-one signature tower housing a five-star hotel, luxury residences and corporate offices – is undertaken by the consortium of UDA Holdings Bhd, EcoWorld and the Employees Provident Fund Board (EPF).

On March 28, BBCC signed the heads of terms agreement with Mitsui Fudosan Group to jointly develop a 1.4 million sq ft lifestyle mall, and also with Zepp Hall Network Inc, a unit of Sony Entertainment Japan, to create the first Zepp branded concert hall outside of Japan in KL.

BBCC Development also inked a memorandum of understanding with international serviced residence owner-operator, The Ascott Ltd (Ascott), a member of Singapore’s CapitaLand on the same day.

"YOKOSO BBCC is a festival for the public to experience the Japanese seasons, and the sights and culture of Japan," said Ong. 

According to him, there will be interesting programmes to reflect the four seasons in Japan beginning with spring this week, followed by summer, autumn and, finally, winter.

"There will be various cultural performances such as the taiko drum performance, Bon Odori dance demonstration and displays to be presented to our visitors," Ong added.

On top of that, there will also be interactive workshops such as yukata-wearing, origami-making and marshmallow-making for visitors. 

"We hope to provide the public with a variety of new experiences to keep them coming back each weekend. The closing highlight on May 7 and 8 will involve a snow-fall experience for the winter week, so we hope that our visitors can come together with their friends and family to experience the wonders of the four seasons in Japan!" he said.