Hotel Istana to come down
By Vasantha Ganesan Published: 2011/09/23
http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_New...#ixzz1Yjd7nJBO
Kuala Lumpur: Tradewinds Corp Bhd may demolish yet another building in the city centre.
Kuala Lumpur mayor Tan Sri Ahmad Fuad Ismail said that TCB has been granted a development order for the 20-year-old Hotel Istana, located at the corner of Jalan Raja Chulan and Jalan Sultan Ismail.
Ahmad Fuad said the order was granted this year to make way for another project.
The 30-year-old Hotel Istana sits on a freehold land measuring 11,803 sq m. The 25-storey hotel has a room inventory of 516 rooms.
TCB, controlled by tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, had last year been granted an order that would allow it to bring down the 39-year-old Crowne Plaza Mutiara Hotel and the 32-year-old Kompleks Antarabangsa.
The demolishment of these two assets located along Jalan Sultan Ismail is to make way for a "multi-billion-ringgit" mixed commercial development.
The project, dubbed the "Tradewinds Centre", is said to involve a total gross area of 3.17 million sq m.
"Crowne Plaza will be demolished and there will be a new one (new accommodation) and Hotel Istana will be demolished to have a new one," Ahmad Fuad said after the ground-breaking ceremony for the Holiday Villa Kuala Lumpur City Centre yesterday.
Given that the Mutiara Beach Resort in Penang had been closed for several years now and TCB has the Tradewinds Centre project in hand, plans for redevelopment of the Hotel Istana site could take some years.
It is understood that over the years, the hotel had been attracting many buyers. In 2007, TCB had even weighed the option of setting up a real estate investment trust that would comprise its hotels.