BB Plaza redevelopment: '20 traders forced out of business'

Iconic shopping mall BB Plaza, which has been a vital asset for UDA Holdings for more than three decades, is set to be redeveloped make way for the MY Rapid Transit (MRT) station there.

However, traders in the area-- which number over 200-- claim that their business have been jeopardised as much as 80% since the project began.

Worse still, the traders claim that they are further burdened with the monthly rentals to UDA Holding despite their bad business.

As many as 20 traders are now forced to close down, and four others have been hauled to court due to unpaid rentals, according to the BB Plaza tenant association chairman Hassan Saad.

Hassan said that last year, the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri has already held a meeting with the group.

The meeting, which was held between UDA Holdings, MRT, Tradewind, the ministry and the BB Plaza Tenants Association, discussed about compensation, rental discounts and preferential rent for the existing traders.

"But a year later, the UDA Holdings still says that a discount was unreasonable even when business was down by 80 per cent. We asked UDA Holdings to lower the rent but they just kept silent, "said Hassan when contacted by Astro AWANI.

He also expressed worry about the next course of action by UDA Holdings as legal action was being taken against traders who could not pay up the monthly rentals. Hassan said the amount of unpaid rentals were not too high and was between two to three months only.

“We also do not know what can be done anymore. We’ve sent a letter to the prime minister but there was no response,” he said, though he added that it was possible that the prime minister was unaware of this issue.

“It’s impossible that if the PM knows about this he does not help. He is the only one who can help us,” he said.

Hassan recounted how his group had held a protest in July after the project was announced, though he stressed that they were not against the MRT project but the fact that they were not properly informed.

“We held the protest and it was more about the position of the traders and where we should go next,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hassan revealed that traders have been given until June 12 to sign a new rental contract but he said that they were refusing as the agreement was lopsided.

“One of the reasons we do not want to sign it is because the rental can be stopped by UDA at any time without any compensation,” he said.

The project, estimated to cost between RM700 to RM800 million, Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB) was reportedly in talks with UDA Holdings to re- develop BB Plaza.

UDA Holdings will reportedly spent between RM400 to RM500 million for such a collaboration.

Last week, UDA Holdings was also reportedly negotiating with several parties, including the Employees

Provident Fund (EPF), Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP) and Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), on the possibility of jointly redeveloping BB Plaza.

UDA Holdings chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said that the parties have shown interest in such a collaboration.