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1. Standby plan urged for cultural hub

2. Commercial makeover for industrial wasteland

3. Kai Tak proposals set to air

4. Contractor arrested over falling wood

1. Standby plan urged for cultural hub
ANDY CHENG , SCMP 2 March 2005

An alternative proposal should be adopted for West Kowloon in case the present single-developer scheme has to be shelved, the government was told yesterday.

Political group New Century Forum said if the government was unable to choose one of the three contenders, it should split the 40-hectare site into seven areas for sale to developers, and use some of the proceeds to fund arts and cultural facilities.

The forum, led by Arts Development Council chairman Ma Fung-kwok, said the project could be shelved in the face of heavy criticism of the single-developer approach and the huge canopy that is a key part of the design.

It said that under the alternative plan, land sales could fetch $50 billion, of which $20 billion could be used for cultural facilities.

"It will be a great pity if the project is shelved in the end," group spokesman Stephen Chan Chit-kwai said. "This is why we have come up with this standby proposal."

The forum suggests the government adopt a multi-developer approach for the site. The group's plan does not involve the canopy, which has come in for strong public criticism over its cost.

Of the proposed seven areas, ranging in size from 0.62 hectares to 3.84 hectares, two will be for integrated cultural, commercial and residential purposes, two purely residential, one for joint residential-commercial use, one for hotels and one for offices.

The group said splitting the land for tendering could create more competition and more income. It also would stop a particular developer controlling most of the total site.

The group's idea is not a new one. Real Estate Developers' Association chairman Stanley Ho Hung-sun earlier suggested dividing the land into smaller sites. He expected his plan would reap at least $200 billion in profits for the government.

Under the present plan, the winning developer would design, construct and operate the museums and theatres. But under the group's plan, developers of the two integrated cultural, commercial and residential sites would design and construct the cultural facilities, but would have to sell them to the government on completion.

2. Commercial makeover for industrial wasteland
ERNEST KONG , SCMP 2 March 2005

Signs are that industrialised Kowloon Bay is set for a metamorphosis, with the area set to become a commercial district filled with retail and office projects.

Sino Land recently paid a hefty $1.82 billion for a Kowloon Bay commercial site it bought on auction which it plans to develop into an office tower with a shopping podium.

Other developers that have acquired sites in the district are ready to start work on new commercial premises in sharp contrast to the old industrial buildings the district is known for.

Kerry Properties, which stopped bidding at $1.8 billion for the property recently bought on auction by Sino Land, was the first landlord to develop a grade-A office building in the area.

Kerry's Enterprise Square Three, launched early last year, has attracted trading firms and fashion houses including Esprit, BCMG and Guess, which were previously housed in low-end office buildings in To Kwa Wan and Tsim Sha Tsui.

Jones Lang LaSalle national director Gregory Ku Ka-ho said Enterprise Square Three had seen buoyant sales largely because of a lack of new office buildings for strata-title sale on the Kowloon peninsula.

"Most of the offices [available for strata-title sale] in Tsim Sha Tsui are old and not grade A," Mr Ku said.

"Enterprise Square Three was the only choice for companies looking for space for self-use in a competitive price range."

He said a middle floor in the building sold for about $2,000 per sq ft when the development was launched. The latest transaction, in January, saw prices hovering at $3,500 per sq ft.

Upper floors of Enterprise Square Three now cost more than $5,000 per sq ft.

Kerry Properties is developing an upscale mall with about a million sqft of shopping space at Enterprise Square Five. The project, due to be completed next year, will have about 600,000 sq ft of office space.

"The project will be seen as a benchmark for potential retail business in the area," Mr Ku said. "Up to now, only tourist shopping groups come to outlets in Kowloon Bay."

In 1988, Glorious Sun Enterprises acquired a 57,100 sq ft site at the junction of Wang Tai Road and Wang Yuen Street through government tender.

In 2000, Manhattan Realty acquired an industrial site at 1 Sheung Yee Road for $128 million.

Glorious Sun is believed to be liaising with the government on the land premium for converting the property into an office development, while Manhattan Realty has no fixed plan yet.

The premises of the Oriental Press Centre, on Sheung Yuet Road, will soon fall vacant because the Oriental Press is moving its  operations to the Tai Po Industrial Estate.

A consultant specialising in industrial building investment, said: "The owner [Oriental Press] had wanted to turn the building into a hotel project, but the latest news is that it plans to refurbish the property as an office building for long-term investment."

Sino Land also has plans to  redevelop an industrial building, Po Hing Centre at 18 Wang Chiu Road, into a 35-storey office building.

Henderson Land last year received the official green light to develop Big Star Centre, on Wang Kwong Road, into a 504-room hotel. but real estate agents said the developer had not finalised its redevelopment plan.

Stevenson Tang Chung-yin, a Centaline Property Agency director who specialises in transactions of commercial buildings in Kowloon Bay, said the district's static property market had "dramatically turned active".

The government tried to breathe new life into Kowloon Bay in 2001 by turning 22 hectares of industrial land into business use. The plan failed to spark interest among developers worried about the volatile nature of Hong Kong's property market.

Property experts also foresee parts of the Kowloon Bay industrial zone being converted into a new seaside residential area.

3. Kai Tak proposals set to air
NG KANG-CHUNG , SCMP 2 March 2005

A cruise ship terminal and a multipurpose stadium have been included as mainstream proposals in the development of the former Kai Tak airport.

Government planners are expected to release some conceptual development plans this month when public views are sought in another round of consultation.

The 328-hectare site should be developed into a tourism and recreational hub, according to public views, with a cruise ship terminal at the tip of the former runway and an all-weather stadium that will hold about 50,000 people.

A previous suggestion to build a heliport there for flights across the border was not feasible because of safety and noise concerns, according to the Planning Department.

Market analysts said it was too early to assess the impact of the long-delayed development on the property market.

There has been much interest in the land use and planning of the Kai Tak site after the dramatic success of last week's government auction of commercial land, the first in more than three years.

Sino Land won the 50,752 sqft Kowloon Bay site with a bid of $1.82 billion at the auction, far more than the most optimistic market estimate of $1.1 billion.

Eric Ho, a senior director at CB Richard Ellis, said: "I was aware of some views that the price reflected a demand for office developments in non-core areas like southeast Kowloon. But I do not see any immediate impact of the auction result on the land use and planning of the Kai Tak site."

The marathon study on transforming southeast Kowloon into a new town after the closure of Kai Tak airport goes back to 1991, when the Metroplan Selected Strategy, which recommended reclamation work be done on both banks of Victoria Harbour, was endorsed.

The development plans started taking shape after 1998, when the airport was relocated to Chek Lap Kok. Studies initially focused on turning Kai Tak into a "city within a city", featuring a variety of public and private housing developments.

Fierce public opposition forced planners to repeatedly revise their plans. The entire project was sent back to the drawing board after the Court of Final Appeal ruled last year against harbour reclamation unless it met the overriding public need test.

The current review was based on a "no reclamation" scenario, the Planning Department said.

4. Contractor arrested over falling wood
CLIFFORD LO , SCMP 2 March 2005

A building contractor has been arrested after a wooden slat fell from a market under construction, hitting a pedestrian.

The woman was hit by the 5-metre-long object when she was walking outside the building site in Pau Chung Street, Kowloon City, just after 9.30am.

The woman was taken to hospital for treatment for head and shoulder pain and discharged.

A police spokeswoman said initial investigations showed the wooden slat had fallen from the sixth floor of the building.

She said the contractor, 39, had been arrested and was being questioned at Kowloon City police station over the incident.

The incident was one of several similar cases yesterday, with others in Wan Chai and Causeway Bay.

At 6.30am, pieces of concrete fell from a residential block in Wood Road, Wan Chai, hitting a parked taxi.

The debris broke free from a canopy between the third and fourth floors of the seven-storey block.

Police said the taxi was not damaged and the driver was not pursuing the case. No one was injured.

In another incident, a section of Leighton Road in Causeway Bay had to be closed to traffic after pieces of concrete fell from a ninth-floor canopy.

Police said the concrete had not hit people or vehicles.

Yesterday's incidents follow a series of similar cases recently in which pieces of debris and windows fell from buildings in different parts of the city.

On Monday, two windows fell from buildings in Quarry Bay and Yau Ma Tei but no one was hit.

On Sunday, a piece of a tile fell from a building and hit a moving taxi in Waterloo Road, Yau Ma Tei, causing minor damage.

Pieces of concrete fell off Windsor Mansion at the junction of Hart Avenue and Chatham Road South in Tsim Sha Tsui on the same day but no one was hit.