A substantial portion of the Daun Penh district offices near the US Embassy has been handed over to a private company to develop an unspecified project in exchange for new district offices to be built on the remaining land, City Hall spokesman Mean Chanyada said yesterday.

Chanyada said officials would temporarily relocate to the old Norton University campus on Street 118 while a company – whose name he said he could not recall – builds a more modern six-floor office for the Daun Penh district officials.

A deal had been struck by “giving one part [of the site] to the private company, while another part of the site is developed in order to have an administrative building that meets the demands,” he said. “A bigger space and more floors than before is required for the office – we need to have a suitable workplace for our Daun Penh civil servants”.

A woman at the offices, who asked not to be identified as she was not authorised to speak with media, said that some district security guards had already been sent to the Norton campus to clean it up in preparation for the move.

Daun Penh district governor Kouch Chamroeun declined to comment.