KUALA LUMPUR: Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) expects its iconic tower project, PNB 118 to be 40 per cent completed by the end of this year.
Group chairman Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar said to date, the 118-storey tower project has gone up eight floors, with expectations each level of the building could be completed every week.
"All sub-structure work has been completed and we have already started working on the main structure. By the end of this year, the structure of the whole building will be clearly visible," he said.
He was speaking at a press conference today after witnessing the signing of an agreement between PNB Merdeka Venture Sdn Bhd and Hyatt Hotels Corp.
PNB Merdeka Venture is represented by its chief executive officer Tengku Datuk Abdul Aziz Tengku Mahmud while Hyatt Hotels by ASPAC Group President David Udell.
Under the agreement, Hyatt Hotels will operate the Park Hyatt Hotel Kuala Lumpur in the tower.
The five-star luxury hotel will take up the top 17 floors of the tower and it would start operations in 2021.
Park Hyatt Kuala Lumpur is also the first tenant in the iconic tower belonging to PNB Merdeka Ventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PNB.
The hotel will offer 232 units of guest rooms including 28 suites and 30 service apartments as well as 20,000 square feet of conference space.
Wahid said besides Park Hyatt, PNB and and subsidiaries will take up 42 tower floors while 14 floors are for amenities, four floors will make up as observation decks and another 41 floors for office rental space.
"With PNB filling up almost half of these towers, I see no glut of office space in Kuala Lumpur or competition from other skyscrapers, such as Tower 106, at Tun Razak Exchange," he said.
The tower will be the third tallest building in the world built with a gross development cost (GDC) of RM5 billion.
Meanwhile, PNB chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Rahman Ahmad said "we chose Park Hyatt because we want a luxury global hotel because this project (PNB 118) is a world-class development project that will be an iconic landmark for Malaysia.
"So we are looking for a world-class luxury hotel operator and Park Hyatt is the industry leader. If you go to major cities around the world, whether in New York or Tokyo, you will find this brand there," he said.