Peninsula extension delay

HONG Kong and Shanghai Hotels has replied to criticism that the opening of The Peninsula's 30-storey extension is seriously behind schedule and costing the company millions of dollars in lost revenue.

Group spokesman Lyn Grebstad said the delay in the opening of the new extension, which was initially scheduled for early this year and has now been postponed to the end of the year, resulted from the complexity of marrying the new hi-tech extension with the old building.

'All parties had underestimated the complexity of the project and that, in a way, accounts for some of the delay,' she said. The 10 floors of office space in the extension have either been leased or made available for fitting while another 10 floors of rooms would be made available for use on a floor-by-floor basis at the beginning of October.

Six of the seven full office floors were now either leased, open or ready to be fitted out. The three partial office floors have all been committed to leases and will soon be available for fitting out.