Matriarch of Selangor Properties passes away at 98
PETALING JAYA: Puan Sri Chook Yew Chong Wen, the matriarch of Selangor Properties Bhd (SelProp), passed away last Thursday. She was 98.
Chook retired as executive chairman of the property development company in December 2017, according to a Dec 27 Bursa Malaysia filing.
On the same day, the company told Bursa that Wen Chiu Chi, 61, the third among Chook’s four children, was assuming the position of executive chairman. He was previously the managing director.
SelProp is one of the oldest property companies on Bursa Malaysia.
Her husband, the late Tan Sri Dr Wen Tien Kuang founded the company with her in 1963.
Dr Wen passed away in 2000. Throughout those years, Chook held the company together. According to a December 2017 stock exchange filing, her interest in SelProp was via Kayin Holdings Sdn Bhd, the holding company of SelProp.
The company owns considerate amount of land in the Damansara Heights area, one of Kuala Lumpur’s most prestigious address.
It was SelProp which developed Pusat Bandar Damansara office complex in the early 1980s.
About 16 acres of the former office complex is now undergoing regeneration by tycoon Tan Sri Desmond Lim from the Malton group who is building Pavilion Damansara. SelProp still has two parcels there.
Guocoland Bhd is the other major player there now, having completed the Damasara City development.
All in, SelProp still has about 15 acres in the commercial area of Pusat Bandar Damansara. It also owns the Wisma Damansara site in Jalan Semantan and about 11 acres in Jalan Batai, Damansara Heights.
It has several other parcels in Damansara Heights.
According to its latest 2017 annual report, its landbank includes a few parcels in Bukit Tunku and other parts of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.
It also has land in Australia.
For a few decades, SelProp was relatively quiet as a developer. It made news when it sold a parcel in Pusat Bandar Damansara to Malton’s Lim. SelProp returned to the property development scene when it launched condominium project AIRA Residences in 2016 and at the same time refurbished SPB Tower, the adjacent residential block.
The unveiling of AIRA Residences caused some ripples in the property development circle as it also marked the emergence of the founder’s son, Chiu Chi.