Dec 01, 2010 (LBO) - The Singapore-based Shing Kwan group has re-activated its big Havelock City residential and commercial property project in Sri Lanka with plans to build 800 more apartments, its chairman S P Tao said.
"This country is going to get better, and better and better," Tao said at the formal launch of the remaining phases of the 350 million US dollar project in the heart of the capital Colombo.
Construction work has begun on the second phase of the project, being done by the Colombo-listed Overseas Realty (Ceylon), in which Shing Kwan has a majority stake, the balance being held by state-owned Bank of Ceylon.
The end of the island's 30-yar ethnic war and a stable government is a "strong signal that the time is most appropriate for us to realise our property development potential in Sri Lanka and to be ready," the 94-year-old Tao said.
"What we now see is tremendous opportunity for urbanisation of cities which will naturally add fillip to our real estate business."
The remaining three residential phases of the project would comprise of six towers of between 22 and 29 floors with about 800 apartments. Pre-sales of the 1-4 bedroom apartments in the second phase will start early next year.
The commercial part of the project will see the construction of two towers of 25 floors with 500,000 square feet for offices and also a hotel as well as a 400,000 square foot shopping mall on which construction will start in mid-2011 to be completed by 2013.
"The nature and scale of development would be similar to those in Hong Kong and Singapore," Tao said.
The project on a 17-acre land is designed by Shanghai-based architects East China Architectural Design and Research Institute Co.
The project had been delayed by the war in Sri Lanka and global recession which had caused a slump in the property market.
But now the market had revived with about 70 percent of apartments in the first phase sold and interest growing, Tao said.
The group will continue to do more property developments in Sri Lanka and will look around for other opportunities.
Sri Lanka's Minister for International Economic Co-operation Sarath Amunugama said Tao, whose links with Sri Lanka go back more than 50 years when he first visited the island, had remained a faithful investor even during the war years.
"Tao invested in this country when everybody else did not have that same optimism and same courage," Amunugama said.
"What he envisaged for this country can now be realised, which could not be done when the war was on."
Amunugama said accelerating economic growth in the island needed big projects like Havelock City.
"What we need now are mega projects which could be game changers in the growth process."
source - www.lbo.lk
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