Serious questions over landdeals in Penang

KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 – When the Penang state government disclosed recently that it was revisiting certain land deals, the first name that escaped the lips of most people was the controversial Penang Global City Centre project. After all, the plan to turn this choice real estate into a mixed development of high-rise condominiums, bungalows, hotels and parks has been as popular as the plague.
But The Malaysian Insider has learnt that the state government is more concerned about a more down-to-earth project in the district of Penanti. As the story goes, land belonging to a clan association was “hijacked’’ by the previous state government and offered as a concession to a businessman in the quarry business.
How the state government or Land Office approved this transaction, bearing in mind that the land belonged to a third party, is unclear.But after going through the books, the Penang state government under the DAP-PKR-PAS alliance has found out that it is in a Catch 22 situation. It is being sued by the clan association and also by the businessman who was given the concession.
The businessman is claiming compensation for the equipment he bought to run the quarry and this has run into several million ringgit. The state government is also investigating how some developers, including E&O, managed to convert the status of their land from leasehold to freehold.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said recently that his government would examine land deals and even review several property projects which have raised the ire of Penangites.
This includes Hunza Properties Berhad's upmarket RM650 million Gurney Paragon project along Gurney Drive.
Two non-governmental organisations – the Penang Heritage Trust (PHT) and Bar Council's National Legal Aid Bureau – are against the project, which will consist of two 43-storey service apartment towers, a 37-storey business tower and other commercial buildings.
The PGCC, the brainchild of Datuk Patrick Lim, will most certainly be scrapped unless a scaled-down version of the development is offered. The businessman, a close friend of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, submitted plans to turn the choice Penang Turf Club land which he bought into the KLCC of Penang.
The plan was rejected by several groups, who felt that it would rob the island of a green area and complicate an already bad traffic situation. The business community was unsure if Penang could sustain a project the size and scale of the PGCC.
PGCC became a potent election issue and there is every chance of the project being killed on the drawing board unless Lim offers a more modest plan with a strong component of low and medium-cost housing.