Pasir Gudang City Council (MBPG) will be conducting repairs and upgrades in phases on the Semai Niaga hawker centres and Kebayan shoplots this year.
Pasir Gudang mayor Datuk Asman Shah Abd Rahman said the council “inherited” 292 Kebayan lots, including two Semai Niaga hawker centres from Johor Corporation (JCorp) back in 2008.
ALSO READ: Hawkers can’t stomach higher fees
“These buildings were established in 1993 to help Bumiputera traders by providing them with affordable rental spaces to operate from.
“All of these facilities are outdated and are in urgent need of repairs and renovations.
“The issues that we are facing right now are that the rental rates have not been increased since 1993 and there is no system in place to calculate the cost of maintenance and renovations for each of these locations,” he said.
Based on the rental contracts, each trader is given two years to operate at Semai Niaga and five years at Kebayan.
“After these contracts end, they are required to vacate the shops to give others a similar opportunity,” said Asman Shah.
“However, based on our records, there are vendors who have been operating at the same location for 30 years.
“This year, we decided to replace the Kebayan and Semai Niaga rental fees with maintenance fees charged according to the size of each of the lots.
“Before this, there was no system for the fee, so regardless of the size of the premises, every tenant was charged the same rate,” he said.
On March 31, StarMetro reported about the tenants complaining about the increased rental rates.
Asman Shah said MBPG decided to reduce the maintenance fee for all 292 Kebayan and Semai Niaga lots from RM2.60 per sq ft to RM1.80 per sq ft.
He said the new rate was introduced to cover the maintenance costs of the Kebayan and Seman Niaga buildings.
“For now, we have offered a 30% discount on the new rate.
“Starting in 2025, we will introduce a management fee equivalent to 20% of the rental cost.
“We will collect the management fee for five years in a row as a sinking fund.
“After five years, we will use the payments to fund repairs of these properties,” he said, urging for the tenants’ understanding.
Asman Shah said that for a start, the council had allocated RM1mil to upgrade the Kebayan Jalan Tembusu shops.
In June, work will begin to fix the drainage system, repair the ceilings, wiring and roofs, and upgrade all the signboards.
“We will also be upgrading three other Kebayan buildings under our rejuvenation programme, namely Kebayan Taman Mawar, Kebayan Jalan Nenas Taman Kota Masai, and Kebayan MIEL Bandar Seri Alam.
“We would need at least RM3mil to RM5mil to upgrade each of these Kebayan buildings, so that is why we need to conduct it in phases and look for an anchor tenant that can attract other businesses to these locations,” he added.
Meanwhile, Kebayan Sungai Buloh will be part of a larger project, namely the Tunku Mahkota Ismail Youth Centre (TMIYC) which is located right next to the Pasir Gudang Indoor Stadium.
“We are well aware that the current Kebayan Sungai Buloh is not popular. That is why we are turning it into a camping site with a mini zoo so that more people will go there.
“There will be a connecting path from TMIYC directly to the Kebayan Sungai Buloh so that people can go there to eat.
“The design of the building is quite unusual as it does not face the main road, but this is among some of the challenges that we face as it was built a long time ago,” he explained.
As for Semai Niaga, Asman Shah said MBPG would rebrand two locations in Taman Air Biru and Taman Cendana to make them more attractive.
“It will be a central location for all traders and we will renovate the rooftops and turn all the current makeshift shops into kiosks.
“There will also be food trucks and other updated features so that it will attract more youth and nearby residents,” he added.
A task force had also been formed to study the issues and ways to improve the other Kebayan locations, said Asman Shah.