GEORGE TOWN: Penang-based property developer Belleview Group will unveil new projects with a development value in excess of RM500 million this year in the northern region.

Its managing director, Datuk Sonny Ho, yesterday said besides two launches on Penang island, the company is also set to launch first condominium project in Alor Star, Kedah.

"We are working with the state authorities to try and change Kedah's landscape and introduce condominium living by bringing in projects similar to the ones we have been doing in Penang for three decades," he told reporters after the official opening of the 1st Avenue mall here yesterday.

1st Avenue is a joint-venture project between Asian Retail Mall II Ltd (a pan-Asian fund managed by the Pramerica Real Estate Investors Asia Pte Ltd), Belleview Group and the Lion group.

Ho said the Amansuri Residences project along Jalan Darul Aman in Alor Star will boast two towers, comprising 22 and 24 levels respectively.

"The project will be sited on a 1.21ha of land and will comprise 277 units, with floor areas ranging from 1,200 to 3,000 sq ft and priced at around RM350 per sq ft," he added.

On Penang island, Belleview will launch its RM200 million Moulmein Rise mixed development project in the Pulau Tikus area by the middle of this year.

"We will offer, among others, commercial, small-office, home-office type units, along with upmarket condominiums in a 27-storey block close to the Pulau Tikus market," Ho said.

Also to be launched are eight bungalow units along Jalan Utama (also known as Western Road). The "W Residence" project, which carries a gross development value of between RM70 million and RM80 million, is expected to be completed by the middle of 2014.

Meanwhile, Pramerica Real Estate Investors Asia chief executive officer Victoria Shigera Sharpe said despite continued chaos in the global economic environment, the year 2011 was a very successful year for Pramerica in the Asia-Pacific region.

The S$3 billion (RM7.3 billion) fund, which is managed by the Singapore-based company, last year consolidated its popular closed-end Asian Retail Mall funds into a private open-end property fund for institutional investors looking to take advantage of opportunities in Asia's growing retail sector.

"What this new fund structure means for our investors, Pramerica and Malaysia is quite significant as the conversion allows us to maintain a more long-term position in the Singapore and Malaysian markets, where we do not have exit assets because of structural reasons, namely the term of our investment funds coming to an end," Sharpe said.

SOURCE: Business Times