WHILE efforts to revive Plaza Rakyat plod on, the majority of its long-suffering buyers have been repaid by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), said Fong Kui Lun.

The Bukit Bintang MP said some 200 lot owners, who had invested close to RM30 million when the project was launched more than two decades ago, have been paid back.

“These are the lot owners who had taken up refunds by several parties that tried to revive the project,” he told The Malaysian Insight amid talk that yet another group is trying to resuscitate Plaza Rakyat.

In its attempts to rescue the project, DBKL set up a fund to help lot owners, and 140 have gotten their money back.

Fong said some buyers “just want to move on”, having lost faith in Plaza Rakyat.

“However, there are those who have held out, as they want to see what happens with the project.”

A handful cannot be traced, he said, adding that they may have left the country, or died.

Previously, lot owners expressed anger at DBKL for washing its hands of the matter of compensation over the project, which was stalled 20 years ago.

DBKL had said it was no longer involved as there was a new developer, which, as the landowner, did not have a legal obligation to the lot owners.

Fong confirmed the efforts to revive Plaza Rakyat, but said the last company that tried doing so faced financial difficulties and had to give up.

The lawmaker, from DAP, said the last he heard was that a China-based company was trying to breathe new life into the project.

It was reported in May that Guangzhou Xu Zhuo Enterprise Management Co Ltd proposed to buy a 43% stake in project developer Profit Consortium Sdn Bhd.

The China-based firm was reportedly expected to pay off the outstanding debt due to DBKL, and recommence work on the project.

“The Plaza Rakyat project is being taken over by a new consortium, which finalised its takeover at end-March. It has contacted DBKL to pay the amount outstanding (by Profit Consortium), and is expected to start work soon,” Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad was quoted as saying by The Edge.

It was reported that Guangzhou Xu Zhuo was buying the stake in Profit Consortium for RM2.4 million from the Singapore-listed Debao Property Development Ltd.

Plaza Rakyat is a mixed development comprising a 79-storey office tower, 46-storey condominium block, 24-storey hotel and seven-storey shopping centre.

The project in Jalan Pudu was abandoned in 1998, following the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

In 2015, Profit Consortium signed a sales and purchase agreement with DBKL to take over the 6.2ha site for RM740 million.

The group finalised the project’s development plan in 2017 and started repair works. However, due to difficulties funding working capital requirements, the repairs were halted.

The history of Plaza Rakyat goes back to 1993, when Sarawak tycoon Ting Pek Khiing’s Plaza Rakyat Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Wembley Industries Holdings Bhd, undertook development of the land.

DBKL took vacant possession of the abandoned site in 2014 after repaying a RM150 million loan taken out by Plaza Rakyat Sdn Bhd. – July 7, 2019.