Johor Bahru City Square
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Johor Bahru City Square is a shopping centre located in the Central Business district of Johor Bahru. City Square, together with Kotaraya and Komtar, is located along Jalan Wong Ah Fook. Due in part to its proximity to the Johor-Singapore Causeway, City Square attracts many shoppers from Singapore. City Square is the tallest building in Johor Bahru.
The building interior consists of five storeys of shopping malls, including a thirty-six storey office block, which is divided into the lower, middle and upper zones. City Square has three floors of basement carpark. Automobiles pay a parking fee of RM1.20 for every hour (or part thereof) of parking time. The Singapore Visitor Centre, located at level 2, was launched in 2005.
The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation owns 70% of City Squares shares. The remaining shares are divided between the Johor Bahru city council and MBJBT.
Both Maybank and RHB Bank have opened their branches in the City Square. Fast-food outlets such as McDonald's have also done so. The TOPS supermarket, previously located at Basement 1, was declared bankrupt in 2002 and Kapitan Mart took its place.
City Square has also witnessed other major changes since 1998. Walls facing the direction immediately perpendicular to the shop where the TIMES bookshop at the fourth level was formerly located, made way in 2004-5 to facilitate the construction of additional shops. This zone of the City Square was dubbed "Cyberzone". New toilets have been installed along the linkway at the second floor of the shopping centre with the overhead bridge over Jalan Tun Abdul Razak in 2004. Users will have to pay a fee of RM0.50 in order to use them. Features of the new toilet included the use of automatic water taps.
The pedestrian bridge which connects the City Square to JB Sentral will be built at the end of 2006.
City Square is also known as the centre of fashion amongst youngsters in Johor Bahru mainly influenced by the more up to date Singaporeans. Every weekend youngster gather in their most up to date outfit in almost similar fashion to those in Bukit Bintang area in Kuala Lumpur. Recently the Mega Pavillion Cinema has been upgraded to Cathay Cinemas with new theaters at level 7 complete with new lobby and shops.
