Update: Atria has been renovated. Please view the new version of Atria here.
Below are older versions of how Atria shopping complex used to be.
Atria Shopping Complex is located in Damansara Jaya. Usually during office hours, the area is a buzz with activities. Many vehicle double park in the area as folks usually visit banks and offices nearby to perform transaction. But during weekend, the area is more quiet- and it’s not difficult to find parking around shophouses surrounding Atria.
Atria had started off as Kimisawa- a Japanese based supermarket. When Kimisawa was first opened, there were massive jam and people during weekends- as there were not many shopping complexes in Petaling Jaya way back in the 80s. Even though the items sold were not cheap, but the novelty of having a Japanese based supermarket made many families visit and buy things from there.
I remembered once when I was very young….going to Kimisawa with my grandaunt, my parents and my baby brother. The place was so crowded and there were people everywhere. Long queues at the counters just to pay. When we got some food, we could not find a place to sit….pity my grandaunt, 90 years old then having to stand and wait for a seat. We later found a place to sit and my parents had my grandaunt watching over us while they tried to go into the supermarket to get something.
Later Kimisawa closed down and I remember KFC and Esquire kitchen occupied what was once the entrance of Atria. KFC was the well known landmark for gathering place for many people then.
Then as more larger shopping malls like One Utama, Sunway Pyramid and Megamall were being build, slowly it is less busy. Kimisawa had been taken over by Atria eventually.
Here is the mall during weekend. Folks around the Klang Valley or from nearby neighborhood do come here for a meal or just walking around. Sometimes, we want to escape the larger but extremely crowded shopping malls. At least here is easy to find parking- but still, I myself may probably visit this mall only few times a year.
On weekends, there is a small flea market selling things. But usual days there are stores around selling knick nacks. And usually people also visit the Giant there- the store’s quite large and the items are priced similar to other larger but more crowded Giant outlets.
Thank you for sharing these photos. Atria is definitely one of the best shopping complexes to visit and these photos bring back a lot of sweet memories during my teenage years.
Hi KJ,
So glad to hear that 🙂
Yes, it is one of the earliest shopping complexes being build in Petaling Jaya (after Thrifty and Asia Jaya). So much have changed.
Great post, thanks for writing this. I remember driving to Kimisawa on its official opening night. It was sometime between late 1983 and early 1984, because I drove there in our family’s new Nissan Sunny 130Y.
The traffic inching along Jalan SS2/55 was unbelievable, it was bumper-to-bumper along this stretch for 45 minutes to an hour! The Lebuhraya Damansara Puchong (LDP) did not exist back then, it was just a small dual carriageway that connected Taman Tun Dr Ismail to SS2.
From a distance I could see powerful search lights lighting up the night sky (they didn’t have laser shows back then) attracting people from all directions. Sadly I can’t remember our first experience when we finally reached Kimisawa or whether we had dinner there.
You left out the French based Printemps department store, which was housed in an adjacent building, which later became Atria Shopping Centre. So it was Kimisawa Supermarket on one side and Printemps on the other. There was also the Piccadilly Discotheque right in the middle and it was a hit with the early Kolej Damansara Utama students back then. It was also one of the few teenager-friendly discos that operated during the daytime.
If memory serves me right, Printemps moved out earlier due to poor business leaving Kimisawa operating for a short number of years. Kimisawa made an exit, paving the way for Parkson Grand.
Giant Supermarket did eventually replace the grocery section where Kimisawa once operated, but if I’m not mistaken the Netherlands based Tops Supermarket briefly took over in the very late 1990s before finally being replaced by Giant.
There used to be a three storey parking complex at the entrance of Kimisawa/Parkson Grand (Jalan SS 22/23) but it has been demolished to extend The Atria all the way to Jalan SS 22/25. Old timers will fondly remember a Swensen’s Ice Cream shop and a Pineapple Computers outlet along Jalan SS 22/23, as well as an open air food court in the vicinity of the former Parkson Grand.
thank you for much for sharing your memories of the olden Atria. Sorry for delay in publishing this comment as I always do not get notification of them. Your memory is so much more solid compared to mine.