BELLEVIEW Group will open Penang’s first strip mall, the RM200mil All Seasons Place, in early 2012 in Bandar Baru Air Itam.

Its group managing director Datuk Sonny Ho said strip malls were popular found in countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia.

“Strip malls are owned by a single owner and managed like a typical shopping mall.

“All Seasons Place, with an estimated 240,000sq ft of leasable space, qualifies as a strip mall as all the retail outlets are facing the main road, has a supermarket anchor tenant, and over 500 outdoor and indoor car parking bays.

“It is designed with a total of 120 shoplots spread over only three levels and all facing the busy main road of Lebuhraya Thean Teik

“Giant, which has agreed to be our anchor supermarket tenant, will occupy a 45,000sq ft space in All Seasons Place.

“We are in the process of selecting suitable food and beverage tenants to lease our retail outlets,” he said, adding that they have received over 200 enquires to lease the retail space.

Ho said they were targeting about 20 food and beverage outlets to be located at the al fresco dining area.

“There will also be other retail business such as beauty care, pharmaceutical and education centres as well.”

The project, which is located on a 8.09ha site, he added, has direct access to a surrounding population of over 300,000.

‘There will also be a 8,000sq ft courtyard with glass lifts and escalators against a backdrop of cascading waterfall and attractive light-emitting diode (LED) lighting.”

The rental for All Seasons Place ranges between RM3 per sq ft for level three and RM9.50 per sq ft for the ground floor.

Ho added that over 80% of All Seasons Park condominium, comprising 808 units, had been sold, and the last block would be launched in early 2012 during Chinese New Year.

The launched units, with built-up area ranging between 850sq ft and 1,300sq ft, were sold between RM300,000 and RM500,000.

Source: The Star

GEORGE TOWN: About 7,300 affordable residential units will be built in the Batu Kawan ‘People’s Housing’ project.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the units would be built on 80.9ha of land in the new Bandar Cassia satellite township.

“We will call for an open tender soon to try to secure more value-added features for the project,” he said.

“Although this is a project for affordable housing, we want to it to be comfortable and we welcome more ideas to make it better.

“After the Hari Raya festivities are over, things will move fast,” he said, adding that an open tender would also be called for a 141ha golf course on the nearby hilly terrain.

Lim said the ‘People’s Housing’ was a starting point for the state government in providing affordable units for Penangites.

He said locals were given priority as the development, expected to cost billions of ringgit, would be heavily subsidised by the state government and the Penang Development Corporation (PDC).

“Initially, I announced that only some 60ha would be used for affordable housing but we have since increased the land size,” he told a press conference yesterday.

PDC general manager Datuk Rosli Jaafar said there would be no segregation between the low and low medium-cost units to encourage neighbourliness.

“We will optimise the density to 56 units for the medium rise apartments and the blocks would be no higher than 10 storeys.

“Units of various sizes will be housed in the same blocks because we do not want the low-cost unit owners to feel segregated,” he said.

Prices for the units range from RM72,500 for about 800sq ft to a maximum of RM220,000 for the larger units. Earthwork for the entire project will take 18 months to complete.

The whole development is targeted for completion within five to seven years.

Source: The Star

Photo source: Asian Skyscraper Forums

SUBANG JAYA: IJM Land Bhd, the property arm of IJM Corp Bhd, is confident of a good 2011 despite a challenging year brought about by the global economic slowdown and European debt crisis.

IJM Land chief executive officer and managing director Datuk Soam Heng Choon said despite a slowdown in some areas such as the Kuala Lumpur City Centre and Mont Kiara, the property market is still resilient in other areas like Penang and Sandakan.

"Property projects, which cost RM500,000 a unit, are still selling strong and the government's mass rapit transit project and the various economic transformation programmes will have strong spillover and multiplier effects in terms of property value and spending," Soam said after the company's annual general meeting.

Soam said the company, which is 67.07 per cent owned by IJM Corp Bhd, will launch projects with a gross development value (GDV) of RM2 billion and RM1 billion within the current financial years ending March 2012 and March 2013 respectively.

IJM Land has a landbank of 1,943.3ha nationwide with a GDV of more than RM19 billion, enough to keep it busy for the next 12 years.

Soam said the company is still open to mergers and acquisitions despite the failed tie-up with Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd.

It will not expand its overseas projects in China and Vietnam for the time being.

The company expects to register slower growth this year as the property market had stretched last year, which saw 375,000 units of various property units launched with a combined GDV of RM109 billion.

SOURCE: Business Times

BUTTERWORTH: The 44-year-old Butterworth Railway Station will soon be pulled down to make way for a multi-million-ringgit state-of-the-art replacement.

The old station was officially closed on Aug 5 and is now replaced with a temporary station located about 30m away, next to the KTM Bhd (KTMB) parcel office.

When contacted in Kuala Lumpur, KTMB corporate communications senior manager Mohd Fazil Ismail said the new building was expected to be completed by first quarter of next year.

“The new station will be equipped with CCTV cameras for better security as well as facilities for the disabled.

“Construction work on the new station will go in tandem with the Ipoh-Padang Besar electrified double track project, which is expected to be ready by 2014,” he said yesterday.

The old station, which was opened by the country’s fourth Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the late Tuanku Ismail Nasiruddin Shah ibni Al-Marhum Sultan Zainal Abidin, in 1967, is also the only station in Malaysia with a 0km distance meter.

The 0km distance meter indicates that this is the beginning of the rail distance calculation for trains that head north for Padang Besar and south for Singapore.

An employee at the station said two cranes were used to shift a 1936 steam engine locomotive and a shunting locomotive head from the station’s old entrance to the opposite of the temporary station.

The fully air-conditioned temporary station has a ticketing counter, two VIP rooms, a room for the stationmaster, police beat, surau and toilets.

Commuter Teoh Teik Wah, 60, said he was surprised to find the old station closed, noting that there was no prior notice about it in the media.

His wife Lee Kan Sean, 67, said she had been taking the train to visit her family in Kuala Lumpur for the past 50 years, noting that the old station evoked a nostalgic feeling in her.

Factory supervisor L. Munusamy, 48, said he waited outside the old station for almost an hour on Sunday night to fetch his relatives, only to find out later that they had arrived at the temporary station.

“The new platform at the temporary station is barely 4m-wide which is almost half the size of the old platform.

“Although it has a high aluminium roofing, part of platform is wet whenever there is a heavy downpour,” he said.

Money changer-cum-book stall operator Mohamed Sirajuddin Abu Mohd, 38, said many passengers complained of having to walk in the rain and sun for nearly 30m between the sheltered overhead pedestrian bridge outside the old station and the temporary station.

“Car parking facilities are also inadequate as the parking area outside the station has become smaller following land acquisition for the new station project.

“I spent about RM40,000 to construct a temporary shop outside the station, which was completed in June,” he said, adding that he still had to pay rental to KTMB for the temporary trading site.

Source: The Star

SP Setia Bhd is lining up residential properties with an estimated gross development value of RM1.131bil for launching beginning November 2011.

SP Setia Property (North) general manager Datuk S. Rajoo said the projects comprised a RM180mil commercial precinct for Setia Pearl Island, the RM62mil 11 Brook Residences, a RM175mil condominium project in Sungai Nibong, the RM412mil Setia V Residences in Jalan Kelawei and the RM302mil Setia Greens second phase in Sungai Ara.

This will be followed by launches in the second quarter 2012, which include the Setia Greens second phase, comprising bungalows, semi-detached, and condominiums, the condominium project in Sungai Nibong, and the Setia V Residences, a luxurious condominium scheme in Jalan Kelawei.

These projects from Penang, planned for launching in November and the second quarter 2012 are expected to generate RM600mil in sales for the group?s 2012 fiscal year ending next October 31.

“For the group’s fiscal year ending October 31 2011, we expect the sales from Penang to be around RM350mil, compared to 250mil in 2010,’ Rajoo said.

Suiwah Corporation Bhd is developing a mixed development project at Bandar Baru Air Itam (popularly known as Farlim) on the island with a gross development value (GDV) of RM1bil.

Group executive director Cynthia Hwang said that the project was strategically located on an over 3.64ha site within the Farlim township, which had direct access to a surrounding population of over 300,000.

“The entire project, which will have over 3.7mil sq ft of gross area spread over three blocks of 38-storey buildings, comprises 270 serviced apartments, 140 small home offices (Sohos), a hypermarket, 300 retail outlets, a medical specialist centre, a business class hotel, and cineplexes,” she said.

Hwang said construction work would start in November and scheduled for completion in 2013.

Listed on the main board, for the 2011 fiscal year ended May 31 2011, Suiwah posted RM20mil in pre-tax profit on the back of RM423mil revenue, compared to RM11mil and RM413mil achieved in 2010.

Headquartered in Penang, Suiwah is involved in the retail chain, flexi-circuit manufacturing, and property development businesses.

This brings the total GDV of the property launches planned for Penang in the second half of 2011 and 2012 to RM4.402bil.

In July 2011, it was reported that seven developers from Penang and Kuala Lumpur are launching properties, comprising largely residential projects with over RM2.271bil GDV, for the island and Seberang Prai beginning the second half of 2011 and in 2012.

Some 1,722 units of the properties with an RM1.899bil GDV are planned for the island, while the remaining 1,389 units with an RM372mil GDV are for Seberang Prai.

Sunway City Bhd, Mah Sing Group Bhd, Lone Pine Group of Companies, Ivory Properties Group Bhd, MTT Properties and Development Sdn Bhd, Asas Dunia Bhd, and DNP Land Sdn Bhd are the developers with plans for new launches.

SOURCE: The Star