Green Hall is a small no-through road in George Town, Penang, linked to Light Street. Although not a major road, Green Hall has been around as early as 1845(the earliest documented mention of it), and probably earlier. There was a Tamil community in Green Hall that traded in salt. The Tamils could be found living in Green Hall until the 1970's. Concurrently, elite Straits Chinese also made Green Hall their home, due to its location at water's edge. They built their elegant town houses between the 1880's and 1890's. The Hokkiens called it Tuan Pa Li Kay, or Master Paddy's Street, in reference to an Irish settler by that name who used to live there.
Barry bought a six story modern office block AKA ‘Wisma Khai Weng’ on Green Hall which was in need of a make-over. The building was vacant for the previous ten years. Barry anticipated the regeneration of this area and the recovery of the Penang property market after the Asian financial crises.
Shortly after acquiring the project, GeorgeTown was designated a Unesco World Heritage site, and Greenhall was included in the Heritage Zone. This encouraged many restoration projects and the consistent gentrification process has greatly improved the working environment. In the past few years, many new and improved food and beverage outlets have opened on the street.
Barry redesigned and upgraded the office block to boutique standard, and rebranded simply as 52 Green Hall. Working closely with local agents, Henry Butcher, they successfully negotiated with tenants to fill the building. The building is let mostly on a floor by floor basis. The tenants are mostly local companies, the largest tenant being Bursa Malaysia listed company Pacific and Orient Berhad occupying two floors.
In early 2012, the building was sold to local asset management Company JKF Capital, linked to Rescom Asia, the integrated property investment house.
Jalan Kampung Jawa Baru Penang.
Barry recently bought and sold a city centre site next to the Times Square development in Penang to a local developer. The developer is working on plans for a five storey office block.