Tradewinds plans to demolish Crowne Plaza Mutiara Hotel and Kompleks Antarabangsa to make way for a new property project- Tradewinds Corp Bhd (4804), controlled by businessman Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, plans to demolish two of its prized assets in Kuala Lumpur to make way for a "multi-billion-ringgit" mixed commercial development- This means that the Crowne Plaza Mutiara Hotel and Kompleks Antarabangsa, both located on Jalan Sultan Ismail, will make way for a new property project- Chairman Tan Sri Megat Najmuddin Megat Khas said the plan is in the advanced concept stage and could take more than a year to start- However, the development order for the site plan is already out- "We have a very precious piece of land- The hotel together with Kompleks Antarabangsa is on a 2-43ha land," Megat Najmuddin told Business Times in a phone interview- Tradewinds, he said, is looking at the possibility of building an office, retail and residence component on the land to provide the group with a recurring income stream-On how high it would be or would it be just a single tower, he said it will be "something soaring"- Megat Najmuddin added that the cost of construction would be in the tune of "billions" of ringgit- Based on Tradewinds's latest annual report, the hotel is 38 years old, while Kompleks Antarabangsa is 30 years old- Crowne Plaza Mutiara is a 35-storey hotel with 565 rooms while Kompleks Antarabangsa is a 21-storey office building with five-split level car parks- As at December 31 2009, the net book value of the office building is RM159-83 million- In April last year, Tradewinds's 85-1 per cent unit, Tradewinds Hotels & Resorts Sdn Bhd, entered an agreement to sell Crowne Plaza to Symbolic Supreme Sdn Bhd for RM384 million- Tradewinds owns 100 per cent of Symbolic Supreme- The transfer is to facilitate the development- Based on recent land deals in Kuala Lumpur, the building together with the land may now be worth some RM1-5 billion- The Crowne Plaza is managed by the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)- It is understood that IHG may still have eight years remaining under the management contract- Prior to IHG's management of the hotel, Tradewinds managed the hotel on its own for a short period under the name Mutiara KL- The hotel first opened as the Kuala Lumpur Hilton- Tradewinds also owns Hotel Istana, which is located a stone's throw away from Crowne Plaza and Hilton Petaling Jaya and Hilton Kuching- Other properties under the group include Menara Tun Razak on Jalan Raja Laut, Kuala Lumpur- ...

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