The $100 million Sokha Hotel and Residence on Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva peninsula will be ready to receive its first guest by September, and recruitment is under way for more than 1,000 employees, the hotel’s owner said Monday.
“We plan to open in September as a trial,” said Sok Kong, founder and president of the Sokimex Group, which operates the country’s Sokha Hotels and Resorts chain. “We are doing interviews with 1,000 people. We need about 1,500 employees.”
Following the trial period, the 10-story hotel will officially open its 400-plus rooms as well as its more than 190 condominiums between November and December, Mr. Kong said.
Construction of the hotel started in May 2007. It sits on 14 hectares of land across the Tonle Sap river from the Royal Palace that was leased to the Sokimex Group for 99 years in February 2007 at a cost of about $5.6 million.
At the hotel site Monday, hundreds of workers quickly moved about, shoveling dirt and laying bricks. Dozens of excavators tore up the ground and dumped the dirt into trucks as locals watched.
“The construction could be complete by September,” said one worker. “We have finished all the lower floors and the upper floors are almost done.”
“Construction activities will finish by September,” said another.
When completed, the hotel will be the fifth luxury establishment in Sokimex’s portfolio and its second in Phnom Penh.
The company currently operates the Sokha Club Hotel in Phnom Penh, the Sokha Beach Hotel in Sihanoukville, the Sokha Angkor Resort in Siem Reap and the Thansur Bokor Highland Resort in Kampot province.
