How Many Menara Warisan???...

I read a good article written by blogger Sakmongkol AK47. I copy & paste it towards sharing with all readers for your further digestion. If our Twin Tower seem like H in representing Hasmah, can't imagine the design of Menara Warisan to be seen like R in representing Rosmah.

OCT 27 — This piece of news has been puzzling me. It is about the construction of the 100-storey Warisan Merdeka tower. Just recently, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said it wasn’t his idea. Yet he announced it in the 2011 Budget recently. That means, he has agreed to the idea. The ultimate decision maker is of course the PM. Unless he gives the green light, Hamad Kama Piah will not move.

The PM says it was PNB’s idea. It’s easy to verify this. Let’s publish minutes preceding the decision to go ahead with this project. Discussions and deliberations must have taken place prior the announcement was made. These must have been minuted down. Let’s see them.

There must also be an exhaustive technical study and financial evaluation of the project. A project such as this can’t be thought up overnight. Engineers and architects must have worked on the commission. We should see all these.

There is the issue of cost. The building will cost RM5 billion. That’s RM 5,000,000,000. Kama Piah says the funding is internally generated. Internally or borrowed, the money represents Malay money. Wasn’t PNB created to harness Malay financial capital? PNB manages investments portfolio on behalf of Malays and earn dividends on their behalf. It has also branched out to handle investments portfolio for Malaysians.

Let’s see an orang kampong assessment of this outlay. Suppose the RM5 billion in invested somewhere earning a return of, say, 6 per cent. That would bring PNB a return of RM300 million a year.

So instead of building one unit of a 100-storey building, why not build a 20-storey building costing around RM300 million a year. So that in five years, we shall have started building five blocks of 20-storey buildings giving us an equivalent of a single 100-storey building. If each costs RM300million, five blocks will cost us only RM1.5 billion saving us RM3.5 billion.

With five, you can place them at will. Spread it around in Kuala Lumpur. Have two in Kampung Baru so that the value of the land there escalates. That will make owners earn high income.

I asked an engineer friend. It’s not that straight forward to do this 100-storey building. Because beyond a certain level, the cost of construction escalates. As we go higher, the degree of inefficiency of the building increases, requiring lots more money be pumped in. In the end, the cost of a single 100-storey building may be more than RM5 billion.

But the more interesting news coming out from the bowels of corporate-dom is that there will be two more similar towers built. This means, we shall be having not one 100-storey behemoth, but three of them. This will mean Najib will out-Mahathir Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

When PNB completes the 100-storey tower, how much rental will they charge per square foot? The Petronas Twin Towers cost is RM1.3 billion. Go ask the rental for the space at the food court. It is RM 130 psf. Will the rental rate at the Warisan Merdeka cost RM500 psf?