E&O anticipates good sales for Quayside condominiums

GEORGE TOWN: E&O Bhd anticipates sales of between 40% and 50% of its Quayside seafront luxury condominiums in the next one to two months.

E&O managing director Datuk Terry Tham said at least 110 units or 30% of the 298 units of the first block have already been booked by prospective buyers since the soft launch of the project. Its official launch is on Sunday Feb 7.

The 1,200-unit project with a gross development value of RM1.8 billion is located within the Seri Tanjung Pinang development in Penang which is touted to be on par with the world’s elite waterfront communities like Australia's Sovereign Islands and Sentosa Cove in Singapore.

Quayside will be located on 21 acres of prime seafront land and is said to be the first development in the region to create a RM20 million 4.5-acre waterfront park exclusively for residents.

The development consists of seven blocks of condominiums, five of which are 26 storeys high with 298 units per block, while two are low-rise seven-storey blocks of 51 units each.

On Phase 2 of Seri Tanjung Pinang, Tham said a masterplan, including the environmental aspects for the reclamation works, was ongoing.

"We have a timeline until 2017 when the concession for reclaiming 740 acres ends and we will work towards that goal," Tham said during a media briefing with Quayside consultants Cynthia Jacobs, the vice-president and managing director of WATG Seattle, the Quayside concept master planner; Jerry Coburn of GCH Seattle who are the landscape architects; and security expert Richard Dimmick the managing director of GDSS Malaysia.

Also present was E&O's executive director Eric Chan Kok Leong.

Chan said the Seri Tanjung Pinang project would be the new Millionaires Row in Penang, withthe prices of properties launched in the earlier phases now being valued above RM1 million.

"It will be the upscale enclave of Penang, the likes of Damansara in the Klang Valley, as it is lifestyle living in the city with its own marina and other amenities," Chan added.

Meanwhile, Tham said E&O has scaled down the height of the annexe of the E&O Hotel from the original approved plan of 28 storeys to 15 storeys and that it would be completed by 2012.

Tham said the RM150 million project was initially scaled down to 17 storeys after it was said to contravene Unesco heritage guidelines for George Town, and now has reduced it further.

The annexe will have 139 suites, bringing the total number of suites to 240, with more restaurants, retail outlets, a podium and larger swimming pool with extensive meetings and banqueting facilities.

On the RM50 million upgrading works of E&O's Lone Pine Hotel in Batu Ferringhi, Tham said it would be completed by end-2010.

The hotel was closed down in April last year to facilitate the upgrading exercise, which will see the number of rooms increased from 50 to 90.