World's second tallest building gets new mall with 158 stores

Early shoppers lined up as 118 Mall opened in Kuala Lumpur on Nov. 1 at the foot of Menara Merdeka Maybank, formerly Merdeka 118, the world's second tallest building.

The seven-story mall was scheduled to open its doors at 11:18 a.m., a symbolic nod to the 118-story tower, but eager visitors were let in earlier, ahead of an official opening ceremony at around 10:30 a.m., Malay Mail reported.

Lim Jit Hong, a 56-year-old administrative executive from Cheras, said he arrived by public transport around 9 a.m., two hours before the scheduled opening, to catch tenants' launch promotions.

"I'm here for the free chicken! Nando's is offering a free quarter chicken to the first 118 customers, and I also wanted to take advantage of Boost Juice's opening promotions," he told the newspaper.

Civil servant Maizatul Akma, who jogs at the nearby Stadium Merdeka on weekends, said the mall's Raincloud, a multi-level water feature with projected light displays, was something she had not seen in other shopping malls.

"It just looks so pretty," she said, adding that she was likely to visit regularly and would drop by after her weekly jogs.

The mall's attractions also include The Atmosphere, a 20,000-square-foot event space on Level 4 under an 88-meter glass dome that lets in natural light.

Two tourist draws, the tower's observation deck The View at 118 and the Merdeka Textile Museum, still have no scheduled public launch dates, The Rakyat Post reported.

Among the stores that did open were Lindt, which picked the mall for its second standalone boutique in Southeast Asia, a Decathlon flagship and SOGO118, a youth-focused concept from the SOGO department store chain.

A crystal cave-themed restroom on Level 3, with stalactite-style lighting and a life-sized Malayan tiger statue at its entrance, drew queues of visitors waiting to photograph it.

Merdeka 118 stands 678.9 meters tall, second only to Dubai's 828-meter Burj Khalifa, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. It was renamed Menara Merdeka Maybank in July after Maybank moved its headquarters there.