LaLaport BBCC is opening on 20 January, but here’s why you don’t need to visit it just yet

The Mitsui Shopping Park LaLaport Bukit Bintang City Centre, or LaLaport BBCC for short, is opening up its doors to the public on 20 January 2022 as its first LaLaport in South East Asia. But, what is a LaLaport, and what can we expect from the new mall? We had gotten a special preview of what it will be as it opens up, but I’m not sure if a visit would be entirely worth it on opening day.

LaLaport is described as a “Japanese-originated lifestyle proposal shopping mall”. I had a special preview of it on 17 January 2022, but the mall was far from ready. There were tons of areas still under construction, the bathrooms weren’t fully equipped (the sinks didn’t even work yet), and there were only a handful of stores ready to be shown to us. And with the opening being 20 January—just a few days after the preview—I’m not confident that the opening would be any different, but here’s hoping that it would!

The stores that were open during the previews included stores that haven’t yet been launched in Malaysia. There was Nojima, a “digital and home appliance specialty store”, the Japanese version of Courts or Harvey Norman, and Matcha Eight, a premium matcha ice cream store. But the store worth visiting the mall for is Nitori—a Japanese version of Ikea that offers many different items, including furniture that saves space and bedding with cooling technology.

While only a few of the stores were open during the preview, a total of 80 stores are expected to open during the opening. A total of 400 stores will be opened “in sequence following the opening”, but it won’t be for a while.

Besides the stores, LaLaport BBCC also has a wide-open rooftop area, a staff lounge for mall employees, and a spacious “Wow Plaza”—shaped like a big W. The plaza is right next to Gourmet Street, an outdoor mall area where you can find Matcha Eight.

Do let us know if you’d like us to go back to the mall once it’s “fully opened”. From our preview, what we were presented with wasn’t that exciting as barely anything was open compared to the space it has potential for. If you really want your visit to be worth it, you shouldn’t visit now, as you might leave disappointed by the lack of stores open. You should, at some point, check out Nitori as the Ikea alternative.