PORT KLANG: The Harbour View Worldwide Hotel in Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) here is set to open its doors tomorrow, after years of delay.

The 138-room business class hotel will be run by Ipoh-based Tower Regency and Apartments Sdn Bhd, which currently runs a hotel in Greentown, Ipoh by the same name.

The soft launch is expected to be attended by a 150-people business delegation from China, who will also be the first guests at the hotel.

PKFZ chairman Datuk Teh Kim Poo said the hotel’s opening is one of the last pending issues of the controversial multibillion-ringgit project situated in Pulau Indah here.

He said the hotel is expected to attract business travellers with dealings in Westport and the PKFZ.

“There are many businessmen coming in and out of the PKFZ and the port daily and their only accommodation now is in Klang. If there is a traffic jam in Pulau Indah, it can take even an hour to get to Klang.

“Now with this hotel, the problem is solved,” he added.

He said the leased office blocks in PKFZ would also be opening later this year and are expected to attract many trade visitors.

“They will need a place to stay nearby and Harbour View Hotel is just at their doorstep.”

Teh said the hotel had been leased to SM International Wholesale Centre Sdn Bhd for five years and the lease was renewable for another five years.

The hotel building was first completed in 2007, but had been lying idle as PKFZ had difficulty in finding a company willing to run it. There were also concerns about the profitability of the hotel due to its location just beside the port.

However the China-based SM International breathed life back into the hotel project when it signed the lease early last year. It has also signed a similar lease for the four office blocks in PKFZ. The company plans to turn them into an international trade and exhibition centre.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 17, 2015.