Now, politicians can learn to walk on thin ice—Sarath Amunugama
Ceylinco in US$ 3.3m ice skating building project

Receiving BOI approval: Lalith Kotelawala (left) receiving the certificate of approval from Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotions Sarath Amunugama. BOI Chairman Dhammika Perera looks on. Pic by Nihal Chandrakumara.

Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotions Sarath Amunugama said that politicians can soon learn to walk on thin ice when Ceylinco Consolidated announced that it would invest US $3.3 million on an 18 floor shopping and apartment complex in Nawala which will the home to Sri Lanka’s first ever ice skating rink.

A project of Ceylinco Commercial Property Developers Ltd (CCPD), in association with Ceylinco Seylan Developments Ltd and Ceylinco and Realty Ltd, the first phase of the project is expected to be completed in two years which is the construction of the basement and first six floors which will house a shopping complex with a capacity to house 230 shops.

Apart from the ice skating rink (complete with skating instructors and equipment) which is billed to be the major attraction, the shopping complex will also have a food court, supermarket, a play area for kids and a 270 seat digital cinema.

The construction of 60 luxurious apartments occupying ten floors will be the second phase of the project which is predicted to be completed one and half years after the completion of the shopping complex. The building will have a total elevation of 18 floors when completed.

This 18 floor shopping cum apartment complex, known as ‘Realty Towers’, will also have a 225 vehicle-park in the basement.

Speaking to the press at the occasion of signing the agreement with the Board of Investments of Sri Lanka, Deputy Chairman of Ceylinco International Realty Group, Sanka Wijesinghe said that small and medium entrepreneurs will be given credit facilities to purchase 180 of the available shopping space which has been allocated out of the total 230.

"The aim is to promote the SME sector and we have a vision to construct more shopping complexes in rural areas," he said.

He said that the Realty Towers shopping complex is expected to attract around five thousand visitors on a daily basis and the forecasted numbers over the weekend is set to quadruple.

Lalith Kotelawala, Chairman Ceylinco Consolidated, said that the shopping complex will give SMEs big marketing opportunities by owning prime space in a shopping complex expected to be a crowd puller.

"We will provide finance with easy payment terms where they can own the shops after twenty years," he said.

Kotelawala said that the public will soon be able to become shareholders of this project hinting at a possible listing of the project as will be the case for similar real estate development projects to be undertaken in future.

While 180 shops will be for the SMEs the balance 50 have already been grabbed by top retailers in the country.