Residents urge ministry to block hotel's sale of 2,000 suites

SUBANG JAYA: Residents of the municipality, especially those living near Grand Dorsett Subang Hotel, are calling for a stop to the hotel's sale of its suites.

They are urging the Housing and Local Government Ministry to revoke the sales permit as it misleads purchasers into thinking that they are buying serviced apartments.

The Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) had granted approval for the development of hotel suites, not serviced apartments, which are what the units are presently being sold as.

The "conversion", the residents say, will give rise to more traffic congestion to the already choked-up Jalan SS12/1, which is the the single entry and exit point for residents there.

The lack of parking is another issue worrying the residents.

These concerns were voiced by Zone 1 Residents Committee representatives, Wangsa Baiduri Neighbourhood Association vice-chairman Haneef Gordon and Summer Villa Joint Management Corporation chairman Datuk Lawrence Lim, recently.

Haneef said, assuming that each unit sold and occupied will have one car, the sale of the 1,989 serviced apartments would mean 1,989 cars.  

" There is a hospital nearby and traffic congestion is already a problem during emergencies.

"We don't see how almost 2,000 more cars can be accommodated with the present infrastructure," he said.

Lim said the lack of parking bays would force the owners to either rent or buy a bay from the hotel.  

"But the bigger problem is, there are not enough car park bays to accommodate the cars," he said.  

Tony Loh, who lives in the housing area directly opposite the hotel,  said there were enough parking problems there without the new development.

"There are cars parked in front of our gates and the roads  are narrowed as a result.

"Whenever there are events at Grand Dorsett and Holiday Villa Subang, which is also nearby, the situation is compounded with buses and more cars.

"We foresee more chaos with this development whose car park does not meet the ratio," he said.

Subang Jaya assemblyman Hannah Yeoh said the council could not be blamed as the development order it approved was for hotel suites and not serviced apartments.

" The ministry must revoke the sales permit and it must be made clear to the purchasers that they are hotel suites.

"How did the ministry grant the sales permit without checking the development order?

"The council, since 2007, has rejected repeated applications from Mayland Valiant to develop serviced apartments.

Yeoh also wants the council, which has been tasked to find an alternative route for the second access road, to meet with all the affected parties as the second access road must be built before the opening of any new development.

She stressed that Subang Ria Park was not to be touched as it was recreational land.

"Residents will object to any effort to acquire any part of Subang Ria Park. They will protest to the state government and go to any length to protect the park," she said.

Yeoh said she had brought up the matter in April, when 800 units were already sold. Since then, 400 more units have been sold.

The hotel suites, ranging from 38sq m to 87 sq m a unit , are sold at between RM387,000 and RM1.1 million. The hotel's expansion and construction of a block of 1,989 units of hotel suites were approved in 2010.

The project, called Dorsett Place Waterfront Hotel Suites, sits on 3.7ha of land and is scheduled for completion in May 2016.

Mayland Valiant is also the owner of Grand Dorsett Subang Hotel.

The hotel had placed newspaper advertisements offering the hotel suites for sale.

It was reported last month that the council had called for the sales permit to be reviewed.

The council had also sent a letter to the ministry asking that it suspends all sales and purchases of the units pending the review.

In March, Mayland Valiant told Streets that Dorsett Place Waterfront Hotel Suites had the development order and all other approvals from from the local authority and the ministry.

Its statement also said:"Our car park provision is in compliance with the local authority's requirement.

"Once the local authority is ready to proceed with the additional access road, we will contribute according to the proportion of its construction costs."