A new project for Angela – Rice Miller Penang

On a recent trip to Kuala Lumpur, Liz Lycette met up with Associate Angela Goh and took the opportunity to fly up to Penang  to visit Angela’s current project; the Rice Miller Development. While in Penang, Liz and Angela met with Dr. Noraini Abdullah, the Managing Director and developer of the multi-million dollar project which is well underway.

The history behind the development is fascinating. The story of the Rice Miller is that of Lim Choo Guan. Born in China in 1844, he was forced to seek a better future and came to Penang in 1860. Having made money ferrying passengers, in the late 1880s he acquired enough capital to establish a partnership that built the island’s first rice mill. He eventually amassed a large fortune and acquired a great deal of property in George Town where he built his house, Mill View, across the road from his mill.  In 1900, he established the modern Khie Heng Bee Mills on the banks of the Penang River. Covering an area of three acres, the combined rice and oil mill was one of the largest industrial concerns in Penang. This is today’s site for the Rice Miller Project, the development which is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, is located in the heart of George Town’s core heritage zone.

The project consists of The 99 Rice Miller City Residences, the boutique Rice Miller Hotel and also a private club, gym, spa, event centre, health clinic, restaurants and cafés, an urban grocer/ deli and boutique retail.

Dr. Noraini also owns and operates Georgetown College, Centre for Tourism and Hospitality studies, the first of its kind in the region offering study and vocational training in tourism and hospitality.  The aim of the college is to realise the potential role of tourism in the region and to promote a knowledge-based platform in development plans for tourism and visitor management programmes.  The overall objective is to raise the quality of people, goods and services in the tourism industries. Programmes are designed to provide knowledge, skills and attitudes that will optimise the students’ employment opportunities in tourism, hospitality and leisure industries.