Pacific Mall has been abandoned since 1997, one of the many projects pushed over the edge when the Asian financial crisis hit the region during that time.

The mall’s main base structure sits at 5 storey’s high and is arranged around a large central skylight lit void. Planted on top of this main base sits a 24 storey office tower with its very own helicopter pad. At the time, the total construction cost for the building was around 300 million dollars (MYR), approximately 114 million USD in today’s money (2022).

Pacific mall had a type of soft opening just after its main retail spaces had been completed. The office tower however remained closed off and unfinished. In that early period the mall was still sparsely occupied with only a handful of smaller shops and 2 large retail outfits (book shop and supermarket) taking up residence. Later on, a large golfing store would also move in and eventually go on to be one of the very last official tenants to stay open till the bitter end.

It’s important to note that many of the smaller shop lots had been sold off to individuals on a freehold basis. This freehold element would prove to become an incredibly messy detail in years to come.

When the financial crisis hit Malaysia in 1997 the whole Pacific mall business flat lined, leaving all concerned in dire straits. Over the years following, the property became entangled in a mountain of legal issues, allowing the building to quickly fall into dereliction. This nightmarish reality left many individual investors in debt, trying to pay off bank loans on shop lots that to this day still sit unusable and unsaleable.

During that period, a single live on site security guard was employed to keep an eye on things. Sadly, he was not of much help, when in 2008 all of the malls 20 plus escalators were stripped back to their bare frames by scrap thieves! Other far darker incidents have also happened at the mall, including the discovery of the burnt remains of a murder victim down in the carpark.

On a more lighter note, 1 shop actually did still function (unofficially) inside the mall, it was a pirate DVD shop! All the latest movies were on sale as well as a big selection of XXX rated films.

Today the mall still sits derelict with its current newest owner seemingly still wrestling with ways to resurrect it. But at least now the site is a little more physically secured, hoarded up tight and with seemingly a more able security staff on hand. And yes, that DVD shop has long since been ejected.