1 Heritage group steps up battle over rezoning of police station
Una So, The Standard 12 September 2007
Heritage Hong Kong has launched a judicial challenge against the Town Planning Board for holding a secret meeting during which it changed references that were part of an objection to the rezoning plan for the Central Police Station.
The 100-year-old station was originally rezoned as a historical site for cultural, recreational and commercial use in 2003 following the board's approval.
In May last year, Heritage Hong Kong submitted a representation to the board opposing the earlier rezoning of the site.
It also applied for a height limit on development. The aim was to keep the site intact for community use.
On August 25 last year, the board decided not to make any amendment to the plan since this would require the board's approval. It also said controls such as design and height could be included in tender documents as this would allow "greater flexibility."
However, the group thought such controls should be the responsibility of the board and should not be left to tender requirements.
Things took a turn in the latter part of this year.
The Planning Department prepared a confidential paper for the board's meeting on July 6 to consider the group's objections.
During the meeting, the board rejected the objections and removed all references to the tender documents.
Ian Brownlee, director of a planning consulting company acting on behalf of Heritage Hong Kong, said the group was not notified of the meeting and that it only received a copy of the confidential minutes after the meeting. "Under normal circumstances, they should have invited us back to make our case if any changes needed to be made," he said.
He said by taking out the reference to the tenders, the board had actually confirmed the group's point - that the government should not rely on tender documents for the planning control of site use.
According to the minutes from the secret meeting, the board's secretary referred to a Court of Appeal judgment in January this year on the Urban Renewal Authority's Staunton Street development plan.
"It may not be appropriate to give regard to the added control under the tender in the board's decision, as the board's function and duties ... are independent of those of the government in drawing up the terms of the tender documents," the secretary was quoted as saying.
Brownlee said the department saw the loophole in the reasoning and the board made the change without including the group in the discussion.
He said the police station site should be for the use of the locals and should not merely be tourism-oriented.
"If we are successful, we have to go back to re-hear our case at the board," Brownlee said.
He said whatever the site's use will eventually be, it should be compatible with heritage conservation.
"This is an incredible opportunity to do something completely different and put Hong Kong on the map in terms of heritage conservation."
2 Art hub panel advises setting up think tank and training schemes
Una So, The Standard 12 September 2007
The government should envision a holistic blueprint for the art hub, including a cultural think tank, the People's Panel on West Kowloon said yesterday.
Group member Cyd Ho Sau-lan said a sustainable cultural development think tank should connect with local art groups, facilities and academics.
"It's not about the site needing how many music halls or museums. We have to ask what kind of software we need for the long term meaningful development of the site," she said, adding that otherwise it would only be an economic and tourism development instead of a real cultural policy.
Mirana May Szeto, assistant professor of comparative literature at Hong Kong University, said she hopes the three-month public consultation will be in-depth and public voices from the bottom up will be heeded.
Ho also said an art education policy should be established to train students and local art groups and art administrative talents.
Local Action's Chu Hoi-dick said that in the '90s the government promised a huge park at the site. But instead it turned into a real estate development project, without keeping in mind the real needs of people living in the area. "This is the government's last chance to correct the planning mistakes it has made in the past decades," he said.
Instead of a "cultural district," he said it should be called "West Kowloon Cultural Park."
Chu said the People's Panel on West Kowloon will conduct series of workshops with professors, and architecture and planning students from universities in Taiwan and the United States to design a cultural district as envisioned by the public.
In an exclusive interview with The Standard, Danny Yung Ning-tsun, a consultative committee member and core member of the group, said the consultative paper did not mention any training of culture strategic planners, which the city desperately needs, nor the building of a creative industry and international cultural exchanges.
He said for such a broad cross-based cultural development to succeed a high-level leader like Chief Secretary Tang Ying-yen is needed.
"The government should push for the training and nurturing of cultural planners right now. It should start with a cultural think tank with good understanding of international culture at the forefront of creative industry," Yung said.
The consultative paper will be presented to Legco today.
3 Hang Seng Building to get HK$200m facelift
Yvonne Liu, SCMP 12 September 2007
Hang Seng Building in Central, owned by a consortium led by Morgan Stanley, will be given a HK$200 million facelift early next year in a bid to raise annual rental income by 170 per cent.
The refurbishment plan for the 45-year-old building could trigger a trend-setting strategy among landlords of old buildings in Central, if it succeeds in attaining grade A office rentals for the old building, say analysts.
Hang Seng Building at 77 Des Voeux Road Central will be renamed Nexxus Building after the refurbishment.
Morgan Stanley teamed up with Pamfleet Property Asset Management and Gateway Capital to acquire the building for HK$2.25 billion in the middle of last year.
The US investment bank owns about 80 per cent of the project, while Pamfleet and Gateway Capital share the remaining interests.
The building is occupied by Hang Seng Bank, which together with the other tenants, will move out next January.
"We will have a full refurbishment programme lasting seven to nine months once the building is vacant," said Andrew Moore, a director at Pamfleet Property Asset Management and Real Estate Investment Services.
Refurbishment of the office portion of the building is scheduled for completion next September, while the retail portion will be completed at the end of next year.
The programme includes replacing existing curtain walls with double-glazed glass curtain walls, raised floors, and a new air-conditioning system.
The developers have also applied for permission to build two footbridges connecting the building to Hang Seng Bank's headquarters building, which is linked with the Mid-Levels escalators and the International Finance Centre.
"This is a step up from the work that we did in Vicwood Plaza in Sheung Wan," Mr Moore said. "I think the refurbishment that we are going to do at Nexxus Building will be much more extensive, so it should result in a much greater uplift."
Nexxus Building will retain a total gross floor area of 264,000 square feet, but will increase the retail space to five floors from the present two by cutting the number of office floors in the 23-storey building from 21 to 18.
This will offer a total lettable area of 180,000 sq ft.
Meanwhile, the lettable retail space will be expanded from a gross area of 25,918 sq ft to a total lettable area of 60,000 sq ft. The average office floor will be 9,971 sq ft.
The leasing campaign will begin tomorrow.
Mr Moore said the owners hoped that with the renovated building, they could increase the annual rental income from HK$74 million to HK$200 million. The rental yield on cost will be 8 per cent after completion.
He said the expected achievable rents of Nexxus Building would range between HK$80 and HK$90 per square foot in terms of lettable area versus the current HK$25 per square foot in terms of gross area.
The office rental rate is similar to that of grade A office buildings owned by major landlords in Central. The average office rent in Exchange Square was HK$100 per square foot in terms of net area.
Gavin Morgan, head of markets at Jones Lang LaSalle, the sole leasing agent of Nexxus Building, said: "We are in active discussions with tenants at the moment whose combined interests have actually filled the office tower."
At least one major tenant will be secured before the end of this year, he added.
Mr Moore said the consortium planned to hold Nexxus Building for medium- to long-term returns.
Pamfleet also teamed up with Morgan Stanley to acquire DBS Building in Central last year, but it turned inactive in property investment this year.
"We're keen to buy more buildings and assets in Hong Kong at the right price," Mr Moore said. "Investing in the mainland property market is something we'll look into for the future, but we are concentrating in Hong Kong now."
