[15] Due to its location, the Malays referred to it as Ujong Pasir, while the Chinese called it Sia Boey, both carrying the same meaning of the "end of the village".

[20] After Malayan independence, the federal government shifted commercial and trading activities to Kuala Lumpur, intending to focus on the development of Port Klang.

[31] It was given priority in the New Economic Policy championed under the administration of Abdul Razak Hussein, who said that this project "will change the outlook of George Town from a colonial heritage to a city reflecting a Malaysian society".

[36] Although Lim Chong Keat established his reputation in Singapore through the Jurong Town Hall and the DBS Building, the selection was accused of being nepotistic.

[13] Location-wise, it was designed to link with a then-proposed coastal highway system that leads southwards to a cross-strait linkage and the Penang International Airport.

[31] Construction of the first phase was projected to raise the total revenue in the region from RM114,000 in 1974 to RM3 million in 1984, which was planned as funds for maintenance and upkeep for the complex's amenities.

[41][38] The complex's podium was designed to rejuvenate George Town's declining inner-city economy with a Western-style shopping mall for middle-class residents from the city's outer suburbs.

[43] Elsewhere, the podium houses a bus terminal, a public theater, a national archives, a police and fire station, and a rooftop indoor orchid garden with a reflective pool.

[45] The geodesic dome, influenced by the designs of Buckminster Fuller, a special consultant of the CAPU, is positioned above the podium directly adjacent to the reflective pool.

[57] The process evicted 3,175 residents to the city's outer suburbs, including Jelutong, Bayan Baru and the PDC-funded Macallum Street Ghaut.

[33] It took place on a 0.4 hectares (1 acre) site, which involves 70 units of retail and office space, where 34 per cent of the total area was reserved to bumiputeras.

Preparation of Metro Plaza began in 1992 with the demolition of the Capitol Theatre and ten other businesses which sat at the site, while construction was projected to complete within three years.

The project sat on an 84,000 square feet (7,800 m2) plot of land running largely parallel to the Prangin Canal and was to be built by Kumagai Gumi.

[91] In 1992, citing its inability to allow majority local participation of the project as required, Yaohan rescinded the 1990 agreement, which led to a private takeover by Lion Group.

[92] However, all construction was suspended in February 1997 due to concerns of unstable soil influenced by flaws in foundational works for Prangin Mall nearby.

[99] The complex contained 73 escalators, two "bubble" lifts, an international food centre, six Parisian cafés, a garden mall, and four cinemas with a total of 1,800 seats.

[62][102] In January 1997, nearby residents filed a police report on this issue, leading to investigations by the Malaysian Public Works Institute (Ikram).

[7] In anticipation of future construction, Sia Boey Market closed in 2004, even though the site remained abandoned for years, due to uncertainties in the light rail transit project.

[128] The stalemate over Komtar's redevelopment led to state assemblyman Lim Gim Soon to sarcastically propose in 2007 to convert the complex into a Chinese secondary school.

[134][135] After its completion in late-1985, Komtar stood at 231.7 metres (760 ft) tall, and became the tallest building in Penang, succeeding the Sunrise Tower,[136] and the second-tallest skyscraper in Asia, behind Sunshine 60.

[148] Between December 1982 and January 1984, the Penang state government spent RM45 million buying 210,600 square feet (19,570 m2) of office space, occupying 17 storeys of the skyscraper.

[160] The 68th floor, standing at a height of 246.3 metres (808 ft), featured a restaurant called Top View and a semi-circle skywalk which extends beyond the main building.

[123][183][184] In 2009, a large section of the podium was renovated into a pedestrian mall known as Komtar Walk, but failed to attract visitors and was abandoned in 2019 due to legal disputes between its operator and state authorities.

[213][215] The construction of Komtar resulted in the destruction of a huge section of the historic quarters along Penang Road and the Prangin Canal, which had been an important enclave of the Chinese riverine settlement in George Town.

[216] Over three hundred historic landmarks were demolished in the process, including the former Jinricksha Office, the former campus of Li Tek Primary School, and the Capitol and Oriental Emporium.

[217][218][219] Gladstone Road, which ran from the Magazine Circus to the west and Carnavon Street to the east, was built over and disappeared under the complex, leaving a remnant at its eastern end that was removed in 2000.

[220] Starting from the 1970s, the city centre suffered from mass depopulation from displacements of entire neighbourhoods and businesses directly caused by Komtar's construction.

[13] With the rise of the service industry in Penang after its industrialisation in the 1980s, Komtar's status as a large, centralised financial district decimated smaller, traditional businesses in the city centre.

[221] The irreversible changes towards the city centre following Komtar's completion was cited as one of the factors leading to a rise of heritage preservation movements in Penang.

This strategy, first employed in the expansion of the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone in the late 1970s, allowed state authorities to skip negotiations and avoid overly complicated resettlement agreements, thereby reducing acquisition costs.