Clanging cymbals and gyrating dragons celebrated the completion of long-delayed renovations to Olympic Stadium on Thursday, as the Taiwanese developer Yuan Ta Group showcased a model of the commercial-residential buildings it intends to build around the sports complex.
The $3.6 million refurbishing of the sports complex—with new seats on the bleachers, a fresh coat of paint and high-tech scoreboards special-ordered from the US—is done and ready to be retaken by the government, but the government has not yet stepped in to take it back, company spokesperson Peng Jin Song said at the ceremony.
While the sports facilities will eventually be handed over to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the surrounding green space—currently dotted with rectangular pools and palm trees that were an important part of architect Vann Molyvann’s original design—will remain in the hands of Yuan Ta, whose plans include a shopping mall and five-star hotel on the site.
Sports officials were not available to comment on when the sports complex would return to government control, reportedly because they all were in Busan, South Korea, for last week’s Asian games.
Minister of Rural Development Ly Thuch, addressing the ceremony, praised Yuan Ta as “a real friend of the government which has made a long-term investment in Cambodia.”
