Penang Times Square, George Town

Penang Times Square, George Town, Penang (9 December 2008)


Penang Times Square (GPS: 5.41241, 100.32528) is a massive urban redevelopment project in George Town, Penang. It is being developed on the site previously occupied by Eastern Smelting Company, also known as Dato Keramat Smelting and Estoy Smelting Company. The area is bounded by Dato Kramat Road, Kampung Jawa Lama, Kampung Jawa Baru and Jalan Timah.

Penang Times Square, developed by Ivory Properties Group, comprises commercial as well as residential development, planned to be undertaken under four phases. Phase 1 is the development called Birch the Plaza.

Residential Properties at Penang Times Square

What to eat at Penang Times Square

Sights at Penang Times Square

Intended to be a landmark along Dato Kramat Road, Birch the Plaza will have commercial units as well as residential units. The retail podium of Birch the Plaza will have three storeys of shoplots while there is even a plan to include a monorail station, if ever the monorail is introduced to George Town. At time this update is written (Nov 2009), the monorail project is still very much on the drawing board - with a high possibility of having fallen off it.

Phase 2 is called Birch Regency. It too will comprise commercial as well as residential units, and is at the moment in the final stages of planning. Phases 3 and 4 are still on the drawing board.

Within the premises of Penang Times Square is Birch House, the former office of Eastern Smelting, and now the headquarters of the developer, Ivory Properties. By the way, the name Birch that is used in the property refers not to JWW Birch, the first Resident of Perak who was assassinated, but to the popular E.W. Birch, the Resident of Perak between 1905 and 1909, who helped in the development of Kinta Valley and Penang during his term.

The roads surrounding Penang Times Square bore the name of places from where the tin ore originated, such as Tongkah Road and Trang Road.

Updates on Penang Times Square

13 February, 2016: Ivory Properties is giving the Phase One of Penang Times Square a RM10 million facelift, to be completed by end of 2016, in the hope of increasing tenancy rate.

11 March, 2015: The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale is held at the Penang Times Square from 13 to 23 March, 2015, from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm.

13 July, 2012: How fast time has moved. Penang Times Square is now opened for over three years, and yet many of its outlets remain shut. The mall has held quite a number of activities in its outdoor plaza. Now the trick is to get the traffic into the mall, rather than to leave it outside. I really feel for this shopping mall and its tenants. I do want to see more outlets opening here. I just hope as the latest phase of this complex is completed, there will be an increase in tenancy and traffic.

8 December, 2009: The Star reports that Sunshine City, the new flagship store of the Suiwah Corporation, has opened at Penang Times Square at the anchor tenant. The outlet is 110,000 sqft in size, and occupies Levels 3 and 4 of the shopping mall.

Getting to Penang Times Square

The nearest bus stop along Dato Kramat Road receives Rapid Penang Bus 11, 102, 201, 202, 203, 204, 206, 301, 304 and 502. The Penang Times Square is also one of the stops for the Penang Hop-On Hop-Off Tourist Bus.

Penang Times Square, George Town, Penang (25 November 2012)


View of Birch House with Penang Times Square (4 June 2011)


Penang Times Square at night (8 May 2008)


Penang Times Square, as seen from Brick Kiln Road (3 February 2013)

Penang Times Square is on the Map of Jalan Dato Keramat

List of Shopping Malls in Penang and Shopping Malls in Malaysia