The Impiana Hotel building is being redeveloped, with works on its rooftop for the upcoming skybar. — Photos from Lee Chin Teck’s Facebook page
KUCHING (Aug 10): The building that used to house Impiana Hotel here is now being rebuilt after having been left abandoned for some 20 years left.
The plan is to turn the property, located at Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce here, into a boutique hotel, which is expected to open its doors to guests before Christmas.
It is also said that it would feature Kuching’s first sky bar.
The passion in revitalising abandoned buildings has led Tecktonic & Sons managing director Lee Chin Teck to take on the challenge of rebuilding Impiana Hotel, among the most notorious abandoned buildings in Kuching.
“One day I drove past the building and saw there was a signage that said ‘RM3.68 million on nearest offer’. I was a bit curious because that building is said to be haunted and has been abandoned for so many years.
“So I rang up the agent, and he opened up the place for me to see. When I first stepped in, I was a bit apprehensive but I didn’t feel anything even though it’s supposed to be haunted. In fact, I think it’s a good building,” he told The Borneo Post in an interview yesterday.
Lee said he did a land search and found that the title was from 1971, and that the land owner had bought it at RM4.5 million.
“I didn’t know who the owner was, but they offered me at RM3.5 million, which was a loss of over one million (ringgit) for them.
“The story of it being haunted is all over Facebook. Because of that, I could not get any bank loan and had to pay hard cash. The banks have certain guidelines where properties are concerned. They cannot finance any property located beside the graveyard and so on, so this is something similar.
“Maybe once I get the makeover done, I would get some financing later,” he said.
Lee said he had engaged an architect to look at the eight-storey building, which was found to be structurally good and intact.
He said other than the structure itself, everything else would be new including the facade, the wirings and the pipelines.
“We removed the front staircase that led up to the main door, because it’s not friendly for guests with luggage. So I knocked down the staircase and put the lobby on the ground floor.
“The old hotel had only one lift, so we are putting in another one.
“There will be 46 rooms, with four junior suites and six serviced apartments. There will be a small gym, a nice cafeteria on the second floor, and we are putting the first sky bar in Kuching on the roof.
“There are five 50-year-old chimneys on the roof, which we intend to maintain as part of the facade,” he elaborated.
Lee (right) and the scrap metal bull sculpture from Perth.
To be tentatively named the ‘Roxy Impiana’, the upcoming hotel would also feature a prominent sculpture, just like the other Roxy hotels.
Lee said for this property, it would be a bull sculpture made of scrap metal that he bought from Perth, Australia.
“We managed to get an internationally renowned landscape architect from Thailand, so the end product will be very nice.
“Also, people have asked if there would be any swimming pool, but there’s the public pool next door, so I will look into arranging for our guests to go there and we pay for the entrance fee,” he said.
On parking, Lee said there were ample spaces at the public pool next door, as well as the shophouses behind the hotel building.
“Most guests would be coming in Grab or taxi, so parking should not be an issue,” he opined.
According to Lee, as a developer it is his job to beautify the whole landscape of Kuching.
“A lot of people are curious as to why I go and buy a haunted building. You see, I look at the location and it’s not bad. But it’s an eyesore as this is a protocol road with people coming in, and they look at the derelict building.
“It’s really not nice. I don’t want to see abandoned buildings here and there. The first abandoned building I made good of was the one in Padungan, now (called) Roxy Padungan. It was rundown with nobody taking care of it, so I tendered for it and redid it as a hotel,” he said.
In its beginning, the building was a hotel called ‘Country View Hotel’, which featured a popular karaoke place. It changed management in the late 1980s and was renamed Impiana Hotel, which was closed for good by early 2000s.
Because of its derelict state for many years, the building was reputedly haunted and had been featured in several online articles about haunted places in Malaysia. Many stories abound about supposed paranormal sightings and incidents, but none has ever been verified, adding to its mystery.
from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3PdnSN9
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