Once scheduled to re-open in April 1997, the one-time first-class Monorom Hotel has turned into one of Phnom Penh’s not-so-classy construction sites.
Yet Chris Ho, project manager for the Malaysian Asbina group refurbishing the hotel, said the new hotel will open after the election. Sok Lakhana, deputy chief of the City Council’s cabinet, said he expected the hotel to open in October.
Ho denied a story published in the last week’s English-language Business News weekly claiming that goods for the project were being held up in Sihanoukville Port and that Malaysia’s shrunken currency was delaying the company’s plan for an additional building next door.
“We’re financially sound,” Ho said. The company, however, did ask for an extension until May 1999 for the 13-story addition, Sok Lakhana said. The original Monorom was closed in July 1995 when the tenant fell behind on payments.
