Pulau Jerejak land sale questioned

Treasured island: (Left) An aerial view of the jetty belonging to Pulau Jerejak’s closed-down resort. (Right) Part of the resort overlooking Penang island across the channel.

GEORGE TOWN: The controversy involving Pulau Jerejak continues with Penang Gerakan hitting out at the state government over the recent sale of Penang Development Corpora­tion’s (PDC) 49% stake in Tropical Island Resort Sdn Bhd (TIRSB) to a local developer.

Penang Gerakan chairman Teng Chang Yeow questioned the sale to Q Islands Development Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Ideal Property Group, when Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng rejected the deal in 2013.

“The rejection of the joint-venture agreement caused PDC to lose about RM220mil in profit guarantee and also the authority over its land on Pulau Jerejak,” said Teng.

Quoting “reliable” PDC sources, he said the agreement inked in December 2013 had a potential profit guarantee of up to RM450mil based on a gross development value of RM1.5bil.

He said the Chief Minister, who is also PDC chairman, had, however, rejected the 2013 agreement between TIRSB and Ideal Property.

“Why did Lim keep silent over his rejection of the joint-venture agreement but decided to sell PDC’s 49% stake in Pulau Jerejak to Ideal Property’s subsidiary?

“Why has his initial rejection become a successful deal three years later?” he asked at a press conference at the state Gerakan headquarters here yesterday.

Meanwhile, Ideal Property said they won the Pulau Jerejak redevelopment project via a request for proposal that saw the participation of five other developers in 2013.

Treasured island: An aerial view of ?the jetty belonging to Pulau Jerejak’s closed-down resort.?

Its group executive chairman Datuk Alex Ooi said Ideal was one of three developers short-listed for the project.

“Tropical Island Resort gave us the project because our master plan was the most cost-effective, eco-friendly, and had a low-density design,” he said.

Ideal, he added, got the project because it promised attractive returns and demonstrated its financial capability to undertake the project with a significant deposit payment to TIRSB in 2013.

“It took us three years to get the master plan approved, complying with all the stringent requirements of the state and Federal Government,” he said.

Ooi said the completed design adhered strictly to the Federal Government’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) guidelines.

“The project will be developed outside the proposed forest reserve area,” he said.

The proposed eight-year development will have a theme park and two hotels surrounded by a low-density and low-rise residential scheme.

“The project will create a few thousand job opportunities for the locals,” he noted.

On whether there will be foreign participation in the project, Ooi said no overseas investors had been approached to co-develop the project.

“The only partner is Tropical Island Resort,” he said.

An English daily reported that Ideal Property had gone to China in March to sign an agreement with a Chinese company to develop Pulau Jerejak.

On Saturday, PDC general manager Datuk Rosli Jaafar said the corporation accepted the offer by UDA Holdings to sell its (PDC) 49% stake in TIRSB to Ideal Property for RM156mil, generating a RM140.6mil profit.

TIRSB was a joint-venture company between UDA and PDC, and is the owner of Jerejak Rainforest Resort & Spa, which closed down in May this year.

Rosli also said UDA had submitted its plans to the state government to develop 1,200 residential units over 32ha, a marina, two hotels, a theme park, an 11.5km round-island cycling track and related infrastructure to promote tourism in the state.