Safira country club to close

This is the Safira Country Club in Seberang Jaya. It will be closing its doors for the last time on 31 Oct 2019, seven months ahead of the end of its 30-year lease from Penang Development Corporation. The PDC wants to take back the sprawling prime land from the operators of the club, presumably for some other more profitable business ventures. True, the PDC did suggest that a new lease could be negotiated but it would come at a rather steep increase that would hike up the monthly subscription fees that would make membership packages very exorbitant and unattractive.

The decision to close the club was made at an extraordinary general meeting last August. It was explained to the members that the PDC had already wanted to terminate the lease some nine years ago even before the lease would expire in May 2020. They claimed that Safira had failed to meet contractual obligations and demanded the club to vacate the land in six months. Safira spent RM150,000 to contest this in Court and finally, the PDC agreed to honour the lease until the term ended. Meanwhile, Safira still had 13 hectares of land that was undeveloped. The club submitted plans to build a banquet hall and 100 chalets but the proposal was rejected by the PDC. The PDC then offered a high rental amount to continue the lease after the completion of the 30 years.

However in the last three years, the membership at Safira had taken a severe beating. The poor business performance had seen the Club dig deeply into its reserves to continue functioning at standards expected of it. Bleeding money profusely, it had become impossible to sustain operations any more. Accordingly, the Safira board then proposed to close the club seven months before the lease ended.

At its height and popularity, Safira offered facilities like a restaurant, chalets, meeting rooms, TV room, karaoke room, futsal, tennis courts, golf driving range, swimming pool, gymnasium, sauna and a billiard room.