Friday 10 Jan 2025
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on February 24, 2016.

 

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GEORGE TOWN: Lifestyle property developer Eastern and Oriental Bhd (E&O) will start reclamation works on phase 1 of the Gurney Wharf waterfront public recreation project near Gurney Drive here next month, with completion targeted for mid-2018.

Measuring 60 acres (24.2ha), the project, which would cost several hundred millions of ringgit, will be borne by the Penang state government that intends to contra the payment in kind, said Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

“E&O will surrender the 131 acres of land to us for free. They will bear the cost of reclamation, but we will need to pay for the landscaping activities which could cost several hundred millions of ringgit.

“We plan to pay in kind because we don’t have that much cash, perhaps through development plans. It is a sore point for E&O because they have to come up with the cost,” he told a press conference here yesterday.

Lim said E&O had prepared the proposed master plan concept, which is open for public feedback until Sunday, by engaging consultants GDP Architects Sdn Bhd for the overall plan, Grant Associates Singapore Pte Ltd for landscaping and Jerde Partnership Inc to design the retail food and beverage (F&B) segment.

The reclamation is part of the 131-acre piece of land within the RM1.04 billion Phase 2A of the Seri Tanjung Pinang 2 (STP2) project, which measures 760 acres.

Dredging works will start next month, and are expected to take between eight months and 10 months to reclaim the site, with another eight months for the soil to settle before landscaping work begins.

Artist-Impression_gurney-drive_FD_240216E&O group corporate strategy director Lyn Chai said the group, which took over the reclamation project from a previous concessionaire, completed 240 acres of STP1 in 2006.

Following its approval to reclaim STP2 last year, E&O awarded the RM2.32 billion construction rights to Shanghai and Hong Kong-listed China Communications Construction Co Ltd.

Penang state local government, traffic management and flood mitigation committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow said Gurney Wharf would adopt a people-centric approach where Penangites can enjoy the sea frontage.

It will feature a seaside retail F&B component under Phase 2 of the project, with water gardens, a beach and coastal grove, he said, adding that casuarina trees would be preserved.

The Gurney Wharf project would see the extension of the beach by an average of 80m, with an artificial beach measuring 400m, along the 1.5km stretch of Gurney Drive, said Grant Associates architect Mike Wood, likening it to San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf or London’s Canary Wharf. 

“There will also be an eight-lane expressway on the reclaimed land. The assets, such as the trees and promenade, would be incorporated into the landscape development,” Wood added.

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