Sofitel set to open by mid-2010

via CAAI News Media

Wednesday, 03 February 2010 15:02 Soeun Say

THE capital’s new luxury 12-storey Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra Hotel will open in the middle of 2010, a project coordinator said Tuesday.

The hotel is being built on about 12 hectares of land on the site of the former Royal Phnom Penh Hotel on Sothearos Boulevard in Chamkarmorn District.

When complete, it will have 220 rooms, a spa, swimming pool, Chinese restaurant and conference hall.

“We have now completed about 90 percent of the construction. We have only the interior design elements left to do, and we plan to open in mid-2010,” said Sreng Soramy, engineering project coordinator at the Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra Hotel.

He said that the 2,000-person conference hall is set to be ready by April, and that the US Embassy had already expressed an interest in booking it for a meeting.

Chan Syvannak, director of administration, declined to tell the Post the level of investment made in the hotel Tuesday, citing confidentiality.

She added that the hotel is a joint venture with three partners from Cambodia, Thailand and an undisclosed European country.

It is being built by Phokeethra Resort & Spa (Cambodia) Co Ltd.

Building work began in 2006 and was expected to be completed by 2008.

Breaking ground so close to the river had taken much longer than anticipated before the project started, said Chan Syvannak.