A ROW of nine pre-war shophouses in the Peranakan enclave of Katong are to be converted into a 'character' hotel aimed at leisure and business travellers.

Construction of the $12 million hotel on East Coast Road will start early next year and end in 2010.

Santa United International Holdings, a home-grown firm that started in the petroleum trading business but now boasts a growing hotel arm, will develop the project.

It will turn the property into the 67-room Santa Grand Hotel East Coast, keeping the conserved peranakan-themed facade in the process.

The hotel will cover a land area of 1,150 square metre and will have a total gross floor area of 3,091 square metre.

This will include a new five-storey extension with 750 square metre of gross floor area at the back of the two-storey shophouses. Some bits of the rear portion of the shophouses will have to give way to the new block.

There will be a lap pool on the roof and a cafe, restaurant and two shop units on the ground floor, where there will be alfresco sitting.

Read the full story in Monday's edition of The Straits Times.