Multi-billion ringgit Sentul Raya masterplan: YTL Land confident of making project a success
Business Times (Malaysia), 17 April 2002
By Roziana Hamsawi roziana@nstp.com.my
April 17. YTL LAND & Development Bhd has unveiled their masterplan to redevelop Sentul Raya, a multi-billion ringgit project which had been stalled since the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis.
YTL Land managing director Tan Sri Francis Yeoh said the development would span eight years, but he declined to provide the estimated sales value of the 118ha project except that it is "eight times higher than our Pantai Hillpark project." Some analysts put the figure at about RM5 billion to RM6 billion.
"It runs into billions of ringgit, of course. About RM6 billion," said an unnamed official from YTL Land.
When the project was launched in 1995, it was tagged at about RM1.3 billion.
Yeoh however said the company was confident that it would deliver its best to develop the 118ha land into "something really beautiful and valuable".
"When we first took over the project (from Taiping Consolidated Bhd), it looked awesomely difficult to revive.
"But we are never afraid to take a project that we know can be turned into something beautiful," said Yeoh as he briefed reporters on the city's largest integrated urban renewal project, citing the group's success in making Pangkor Laut Resort, Bintang Walk and Pantai Hillpark what they are today.
The development will be divided into two unique but distinctive areas. Sentul East (43ha) will showcase the Malaysian flavours and Sentul West (74ha) will have exclusive residences and lakes and a private park.
The project kicks off next month, with the launch of Sentul East's "Tamarind" apartments. The units will be priced from RM200,000 each, said Yeoh.
YTL Land deputy managing director Datuk Victor Yeoh told NST Business that one condominium block, which was already constructed before the whole development was shelved, would be ready for completion in September.
"We have given the buyers a 15 per cent discount, to compensate them for the late delivery of their properties," he said, adding that any grouses and complaints the buyers had before had been resolved amicably.
"No legal action against us ... all have been resolved," he said.
Earlier, Francis Yeoh said those buyers who had expressed their disappointment that the nine-hole golf course — part of the original Sentul Raya masterplan — was to be turned into a park modelled after St James Park in London are "no longer disgruntled. They are now even willing to put money into this new development".
"We understand that properties near a golf course are valuable but what about homes around a 12ha park? And we are talking about Malaysia's first private gated park, exclusively for residents?" asked Yeoh.
He cited the "valuable properties" surrounding London's Hyde Park and New York's Central Park, saying that the "rare green lung in Sentul West" would naturally raise the standard of the residents of the 4,000 condo units surrounding the park.
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