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$1.1b Kowloon bid confirmed by Henderson 2.
New housing plan `favours developers' 3.
12 in line for $4b KCRC venture 4.
Old areas may yield 35,000 extra flats 5.
Bridge contractors unpaid five years on 6.
Tamar site should be 'lobby' for HK, says group
1. $1.1b Kowloon bid confirmed by Henderson Henderson
Land Development has tabled a guaranteed bid of $1.1 billion for a commercial
and residential site in West Kowloon. ``We applied for the site to be offered
for sale,'' Henderson Land chairman Lee Shau-kee revealed yesterday after attending
the annual general meeting of the Bank of East Asia. The identity of the developer
who sought the release of the site in the West Kowloon reclamation project was
not known until Lee confirmed Henderson's involvement yesterday. The 112,486-square-foot
site, which will go up for auction on April 15, will be the first big test for
the land market this year. Surveyors expect it to fetch between $1.18 billion
and $1.3 billion. Meanwhile, Sun Hung Kai Properties vice-chairman Thomas Kwok
said other developers had applied to the government to release more sites on the
Application List. ``I know some other applications have been made, besides the
two applications that were approved recently,'' Kwok said, refusing to reveal
whether his company had applied for a site. Assistant Director of Lands Herbert
Leung said last week a minimum bid of $460 million had been made for a luxury
residential site at Cornwall Street, Kowloon Tong. It will also go up for auction
on April 15, the first government land auction of the fiscal year. [Source:
Hong Kong iMail, 27 April 2002] 2.
New housing plan `favours developers'
Developers will be the ultimate winners of a government land allocation policy
revamp - at the expense of those needing public housing, legislators say. Under
the new policy, the Housing Authority will hand over land from demolished old
housing projects to the Planning and Lands Bureau, and subsequently to a special
committee led by Chief Secretary Donald Tsang, before a final decision on its
use. Lawmakers attending yesterday's Legislative Council Finance Committee meeting
were worried that, as a result, high-value residential sites would go to private
developers. Legislators were also worried that tenants affected by the redevelopment
of old housing estates would be required to move to relatively remote areas. Details
of the new policy, which will also require land for new projects to go under the
scrutiny of the Committee on Land Supply for Housing, led by Tsang, were revealed
to lawmakers yesterday, a day after Housing Authority members had been briefed
on the changes. ``Will the government give the good quality sites to private developers,
while the poor and grassroots people will be forced to live in relatively inferior
locations?'' Frontier lawmaker Emily Lau asked. Secretary for Planning and Lands
John Tsang told the committee this was not the case. ``Our policy is to follow
the market, not the developers,'' Tsang said. Secretary for Housing Dominic Wong
tried to ease lawmakers' concerns, saying high-quality sites would not be restricted
to private residential development. The sites could be used to build public rental
estates. The authority has already returned 17 sites slated for development or
redevelopment to the government after the administration decided to suspend flat
sales last September. Of those sites, 53,000 flats were to be provided under the
Home Ownership Scheme and Private Sector Participation Scheme and another 12,431
public rental flats were to be built. [Source:
Hong Kong iMail, 27 April 2002] 3.
12 in line for $4b KCRC venture
The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) has received 12 expressions of interest
from major developers for the $4 billion joint-venture redevelopment project adjacent
to the Fo Tan station. The 12 included Cheung Kong (Holdings), Sun Hung Kai Properties,
Wharf (Holdings), Henderson Land, Hang Lung Properties, New World Development,
HKR International, Sino Land and Nan Fung Development. After the closing of submissions,
the property director of KCRC, Daniel Lam said the corporation was satisfied with
the response. He said the expressions of interest showed that the property developers
were confident about the project after the design had been revised with substantial
savings in construction costs. But a spokeswoman from Wing Tai Asia, which had
previously expressed interest, said the company had not submitted an expression
of interest. She said the firm would rather keep its cash in reserve for the land
auction, scheduled for early next month. Analysts said Wing Tai Asia's decision
reflected the limited attraction of the site. The development was originally part
of the Royal Ascot phase three project by Sun Hung Kai Properties. The company
pulled out in August 1998 because of high construction costs associated with the
installation of sound insulation panels, which had to be fitted to muffle the
noise from the KCRC trains. After a four-year delay, the KCRC revised the design
with substantial reductions in building costs in an attempt to make the site more
attractive to bidders. Lam said the corporation was scheduled to invite public
tenders within the next few months. Some developers who submitted an expression
of interest said they needed more information on profit-sharing schemes and land
premiums before making an official bid. Property analysts expect the development
to cost $4 billion. Apart from the Ho Tung Lau project next to the Fo Tan station,
KCRC plans to offer another three sites for development this year, including areas
in Tsuen Wan, Sham Shui Po and Tai Wai in Sha Tin, Lam said. The 2.65-hectare
site next to the Fo Tan station will be developed into a 1.3 million square foot
residential area with retail space of 21,500 square foot. Five residential blocks
of 37 to 40 storeys will be built on a two-storey podium to provide about 1,560
apartments and 293 car parking spaces. [Source:
Hong Kong iMail, 27 April 2002] 4.
Old areas may yield 35,000 extra flats
The government is conducting a public consultation on the future land use of four
Kowloon districts, in a bid to restructure built-up areas and provide an extra
35,000 flats. The Planning Department and the Housing Department have completed
four initial studies to explore the possibilities in Ngau Tau Kok, Ho Man Tin,
Shek Kip Mei and Cheung Sha Wan. All have a high concentration of public housing
estates with opportunities for land use review. Gains under proposals for the
four districts included 13 additional schools, six hectares of public open space,
three new public transport interchanges and five pedestrian walkway systems. If
all the restructuring proposals were implemented, there would be a net increase
of 34,800 flats and 79,000 people in the four districts. Previous redevelopments
of old public housing areas had taken place within the existing estate boundaries.
``Such an approach has little scope for rationalising the land use and improving
the living environment,'' a government spokesman said yesterday. Under the new
approach, ``broad and comprehensive'' planning of public housing and adjoining
government sites would ``optimise the long-term land use and bring about greater
community benefits in terms of provision of community facilities and improvement
to landscaping, infrastructure and the environment''. The initial studies conducted
by the Planning Department and Housing Department showed Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate
had the potential to become a major district focal point and residential area.
New developments near Choi Wan Road would take advantage of the district's ``high
accessibility'' and turn the area, now dominated by crumbling public housing,
into an attractive residential district. Ho Man Tin had several under-used government
sites including a police vehicle pound, a girls' home, the former Carmel School
and the King's Park service reservoir. In Cheung Sha Wan, the study called for
three new schools to meet local demand and more open space. The whole process
of land use restructuring would take about 15-20 years to complete. The four studies
are being conducted in two stages. The first stage would deal with broad concepts.
Feasibility, viability and implementation details would be looked at later. The
exercise will last until mid-June. [Source:
Hong Kong iMail, 28 April 2002] 5.
Bridge contractors unpaid five years on
HIGHWAYS officials have still to agree on the final cost of the record-breaking
Tsing Ma bridge - five years after the showpiece link was completed. Director
of Highways Lo Yiu-ching told the Hong Kong iMail the department was still negotiating
with contractors to finalise the cost of building the structure. A $7.14 billion
construction contract for the two-kilometre bridge was awarded in May 1992 to
a joint venture between British companies, Costain and Trafalgar House, and Japan's
Mitsui Corporation.The final price tag of is likely to be about $7.5 billion.
The bridge forms part of the Lantau Link, the network that connects Tsing Yi and
Lantau Island to Chek Lap Kok airport. But while the Tsing Ma bridge, the world's
longest combined road and rail bridge, was completed on time, the construction
consortium is still waiting for its outstanding cash. Lo confirmed that contractors
who installed a sophisticated traffic control and surveillance system on the Lantau
link and part of Route 3 had also still to agree on a final account. Lo indicated
the contractors may face a long wait for their money, saying: ``At this moment
it is not possible to estimate when settlements are likely.'' Delays to agree
on a final price tag have been hampered by a series of contract wrangles between
contractors, subcontractors and highways officials. In 2000, Costain and Mitsui
won an arbitration against the Highways Department over claims for extra cash
that was spent meeting the department's tough concrete specifications. Concrete
used to build the 206-metre-high bridge towers has a design life of about 100
years, but the contractors found it initially difficult to meet the technical
specification of the material. As a result there was a delay of more than three
months and work had to be accelerated to make up for these hold-ups. Costain-Mitsui
had claimed about 48 million (HK$534.32 million) extra. There were similar claims
by Trafalgar House, now part of Sweden's Skanska group. There were further difficulties
in 1997-98 when part of the bridge's road surface blistered and then broke up.
The problems were evident before the bridge opened, but they worsened when heavy
traffic started to use the bridge after its opening in May 1997. ``All claims
submitted by the contractors have been settled but there are some minor issues
still outstanding,'' Lo said. ``These have to be resolved before the contracts
can be finalised.''. [Source:
Hong Kong iMail, 29 April 2002] 6.
Tamar site should be 'lobby' for HK, says group
Anti-reclamation lobbyists are pressing Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa to scrap
the idea of building the new government headquarters on the Tamar site. They argue
the site should instead be turned into Hong Kong's "lobby" to welcome
visitors. They have also threatened legal action if the Government goes ahead
with an idea to reclaim the seabed off Causeway Bay for a man-made islet. In a
plan released yesterday by the Society for Protection of the Harbour, the coast
to the east of the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai should become
Hong Kong's version of Darling Harbour in Sydney, which features shops, flats,
an aquarium, a marina and an entertainment complex. And to the west of the centre
it proposes a cultural and civic precinct, with the Tamar site developed as a
civic square. In a letter yesterday to Mr Tung and Executive Councillors, the
society's chairman, Winston Chu Ka-sun, said the Tamar site "belongs to the
people of Hong Kong". "The Tamar site should be designed as the lobby
of Hong Kong, as a focal point for visitors around the world," Mr Chu said
later. "It is too short-sighted to sell the land for money. A hotel lobby
won't generate money. But why does a hotel need an elegant lobby? It is to enhance
the hotel's standing." Reports last week said Exco had given an initial go-ahead
for the Tamar site to be used for the new government headquarters. Tycoon Li Ka-shing
has also supported the idea. Developers fear an oversupply of offices should the
Tamar site be used for building commercial blocks, forcing down office rents or
values of towers in Central. Mr Chu also said his group might sue the Government
if it went ahead with the man-made islet project off Causeway Bay. He said it
would be in breach of the Protection of the Harbour Ordinance because it was not
an essential project. The Government has proposed reclaiming some land off Causeway
Bay to build a harbour park "to bring people to the harbour". Martin
Gilbert, director of Gillespies, an Australian-based consultancy firm specialising
in harbour development, cited the case in Sydney and said an independent waterfront
authority could allow people a say in how they wanted the harbour to be developed. [Source:
SCMP, 30 April 2002] |  |
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