IOI City Mall’s next million square feet: from its 2014 opening to Phase 3

More than eleven years after IOI City Mall first opened, its third major expansion is under construction. The next phase is meant to add another one million square feet of leasable space—but the latest public timeline is later than some earlier estimates.

The story of IOI City Mall’s Phase 3 is now more than a proposal on a drawing board. IOI Properties’ Q3 FY2026 group update, dated 28 May 2026, lists the construction of IOI City Mall Phase 3 among the group’s property-investment priorities. A later public description has not changed the stated size: the extension is planned to add one million sq ft of net lettable area. The latest company-level schedule located for this article points to 2030, so shoppers should treat earlier 2028 or 2029 estimates as part of an evolving project timeline rather than a firm opening promise.

2014: a regional mall arrives

IOI City Mall opened in November 2014 as the retail anchor of IOI Resort City near Putrajaya. Later industry reporting describes its first phase as having 1.5 million sq ft of net lettable area. A report published days after the opening said the new mall was targeting two million visitors a month and wanted 85% of its space leased by December. Its early draw was already broader than shops: the original offer included an Olympic-sized ice rink and District 21, an indoor adventure park, alongside major department, home and fashion tenants.

The next leap took years rather than months. Construction of Phase 2 began in 2018 and continued through the disruption of pandemic lockdowns. By December 2021, IOI Properties said around 70% of the new phase had secured tenants. The company was not merely extending rows of shoplots. Plans included a six-storey glass atrium, a 40,000 sq ft exhibition hall, an IMAX cinema concept, a rooftop sports centre, a gym and more dining and entertainment space.

2022: Phase 2 changes the scale

Phase 2 began business on 25 August 2022. It added one million sq ft of net lettable area, taking the combined mall to 2.5 million sq ft and making it Malaysia’s largest shopping mall by that measure. The extension brought more than 300 additional outlets and pushed the overall retail count above 700. New components included IOI City Farm, IOI Sports Centre and the IOI Grand Exhibition and Convention Centre, while the existing ice rink and adventure park continued to give families reasons to stay well beyond a normal shopping trip.

The larger mall still had to fill and mature. In March 2023, The Edge reported 92% occupancy across the 2.5 million sq ft complex. By FY2025, IOI Properties said occupancy had reached 99% with strong footfall. That progression matters because Phase 3 is being added to a mall that is already heavily occupied, not to an empty shell looking for a new purpose. It also explains why the operator now speaks about recurring income and a waiting list for tenants rather than expansion for size alone.

Phase 3: from approvals to active construction

Public expectations for Phase 3 have shifted as the project moved forward. In July 2023, IOI Properties’ retail leadership expected construction to start by the end of 2024 and completion in 2029. In January 2024, group chief executive officer Lee Yeow Seng said the phase was still being planned and work would start after the relevant approvals. Kenanga Research later reported that construction began in December 2024 and, in May 2025, cited a completion target around 2028. By November 2025, however, Lee’s latest published company interview placed the one-million-sq-ft Phase 3 expansion in 2030. The 2026 group update confirms construction but does not publish a more precise opening date.

By June 2026, the mall was already operating at a scale that would have sounded ambitious at its launch. Bloomberg reported that it had more than 800 stores, about three million visitors a month and roughly 7,000 people working across the complex. The same report put leasable space at 2.54 million sq ft and occupancy at 99%. Adding another one million sq ft would take the mall to roughly 3.5 million sq ft of net lettable area, broadly matching the size IOI Properties discussed while Phase 3 was still at the planning stage.

What has not been confirmed

The headline number is clearer than the final contents. The sources reviewed for this article do not provide a complete Phase 3 tenant list, an exact public opening day, a final internal layout or a definitive account of every road and parking change. Longer-term plans reported around IOI Resort City also include a concert hall, a 10-acre park and a luxury hotel, but earlier comments placed the concert hall under a possible Phase 4. Those elements should not all be presented as confirmed parts of Phase 3 unless IOI Properties publishes a detailed phase plan.

For visitors from Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, Kajang, Bangi, Seri Kembangan and the wider southern Klang Valley, the practical test will be how the extension handles access and movement around an already busy destination. The existing mall advertised more than 14,000 parking spaces when Phase 2 opened, yet sheer size makes wayfinding and traffic management as important as the number of stores. Until a formal Phase 3 opening plan appears, the safest reading is simple: construction is active, another one million sq ft is planned, and 2030 is the latest public company target found—not a guarantee that every part will open at once.

IOI City Mall’s progress has come in long cycles: the original mall in 2014, construction of Phase 2 from 2018, the 2022 opening that made it Malaysia’s largest, and the current Phase 3 build. Each stage has added more than retail space, moving the complex towards an all-day mix of shopping, dining, sport, entertainment and events. The next chapter is substantial, but the mall’s own history suggests that the most useful measure of progress will be verified construction milestones and official opening details, not size rankings or social-media countdowns.