1 Mega Tower height cut by 38 floors. Hopewell looks to speed up project
Olga Wong, SCMP 20 November 2008
The Mega Tower - Hopewell Holdings' proposed 93-storey hotel skyscraper in Wan Chai - is no more. The developer yesterday announced a revised plan, cutting its height by 38 floors.
Fourteen controversy-filled years after the project was first approved, it has shrunk to 55 floors, bringing it below the Hong Kong Island ridge line and making it shorter than the nearby Hopewell Centre, which, at 60 floors, was once Hong Kong's tallest building.
Announcing the changes yesterday, Hopewell managing director Thomas Jefferson Wu said he hoped they would speed up the project, which the company is now calling Hopewell Centre II.
The government is seeking legal advice on whether the scaled-down project needs fresh approval from the Town Planning Board.
"We have never seen a developer initiating such a large-scale reduction in an approved plan," said Secretary for Development Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. She said that regulations only require scaled-up projects to secure a second approval from the board. The first plan was approved in 1994.
Wan Chai District Council will be consulted in January.
Despite the reduction, the 1,024-room hotel is expected to be the biggest on Hong Kong Island and will be the city's first conference hotel. Mr Wu said it would be able to cater for conferences with 1,000 participants.
A spokesman for Hilton Hotels said the group had signed an exclusive agreement with Hopewell to explore the possibility of co-developing the hotel.
Mr Wu promised to preserve as far as possible the green areas at the site between Kennedy Road and Queen's Road East and to revitalise the neighbouring grade-one listed historic mansion Nam Koo Terrace.
Two public spaces totalling 5,880 square metres will be provided, one within the site managed by Hopewell according to government guidelines and an adjacent one managed by the government. The plan also includes road-improvement works such as widening Queen's Road East, which Mr Wu said would alleviate traffic congestion. They are subject to approval by the Transport Department.
Mr Wu said the new plan demonstrated the company's determination to shoulder its social responsibilities. He dismissed speculation that it had made a deal with the government for a lower land premium in return for protecting the island ridge line.
A government source said there was no hidden deal.
Mr Wu said the project's cost would fall by HK$2 billion, to HK$5 billion.
Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors president Yu Kam-hung estimated the changes would reduce the tower's value by a quarter. Mr Wu said scaling it down did not necessarily make it less profitable.
A source in the company said it would not have revised the plan if it was not going to be profitable.
The project will provide construction work for 1,500, and 4,000 jobs. It is expected to be finished in 2015.
2 HK$20m plan to save trees at tower site Green groups press for changes
Joyce Ng, SCMP 20 November 2008
The Hopewell Mega Tower project will include a HK$20 million plan for tree conservation and transplantation, but conservationists have urged the developer to build the hotel on cantilevers to preserve the trees instead of transplanting them.
And a leading conservation group is pressing ahead with a proposal calling for the site to be rezoned as green belt.
A study conducted by the developer earlier this year for the project - called Hopewell Centre II - found 510 trees on the site, including 12 trees growing in stone walls, which are regarded as heritage objects.
Hopewell Holdings unveiled a revised plan for the project yesterday, shrinking the tower from 93 storeys to 55 storeys. The company also said it would conserve or transplant about 100 trees considered healthy, and would hire specialists to find ways to conserve the other 410 trees said to be in poor condition. With new trees to be planted, the parks planned for the project will have up to 650 trees.
But Peter Li Siu-man, campaign manager of the Conservancy Association, has doubts.
"The trees are valuable. We believe some are 50 and 80 years old," he said. One Chinese banyan, which stands at one edge of the site, on Kennedy Road, is an "old and valuable tree" listed by the government.
Mr Li said that if Hopewell stuck to its plan to build the hotel tower on top of a podium, most trees would be affected.
"It depends how the podium is constructed. If it is a concrete structure, most trees on the ground will have to be transplanted, which will cause more damage. If the podium is supported by cantilevers, the trees can stay and damage will be less," he said. He urged the developer to give more details about the conservation plan.
Meanwhile, Mr Li's group will press ahead with its proposal to the Town Planning Board that the development site be rezoned into a green belt. The board will discuss the rezoning plan next month.
Ada Wong Ying-kay, former chairwoman of Wan Chai District Council, also hoped the trees would be preserved.
Apart from trees, the developer says the project will preserve and revitalise the disused Nam Koo Terrace on Ship Street, a grade one historic building owned by Hopewell.
The building is believed to have been built as early as 1915 and was first owned and lived in by a Shanghainese merchant. It was said to have been a comfort house for Japanese soldiers during the second world war.
Hopewell co-managing director Thomas Jefferson Wu said they had not decided on the use, but the building and the surrounding land would be open to the public.
Stephen Ng Kam-chun, vice-chairman of Wan Chai District Council, suggested it could be used as a restaurant, joining other fine dining establishments on the street. He also welcomed the height reduction.
Lee Ho-yin, director of the Architectural Conservation Programme at the University of Hong Kong, said an exhibition hall or a clubhouse would be a more compatible use given the building's domestic nature.
3 Subway plan for Nathan Rd revised to spare old trees
Cheung Chi-fai, SCMP 20 November 2008
The MTR Corporation has scrapped the idea of building two new entrances to Tsim Sha Tsui station next to Kowloon Park, thereby avoiding any negative impact on a group of old trees.
The entrances were proposed as part of a pedestrian subway project designed to alleviate congestion in the northern section of the busy station. Three other entrances on the other side of Nathan Road will not be affected.
The entrances were to have been built in front of the Park Lane Boulevard shops and would have given access to the station and to a pedestrian concourse under Nathan Road.
The three remaining entrances will link the station to the Tung Ying Building, the Mira Hotel, formerly know as the Miramar, and its shopping centre.
The rail operator said the decision was a result of negotiations with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.
"It was concluded that the two entrance options were inappropriate in view of the potential impact on the old and valuable trees," a consultant's report said.
It said the subway project consisted of two 80-metre sections of tunnel, and a 45-metre concourse running 15 metres underneath Nathan Road from the junction of Cameron Road to Kimberley Road.
The report said all 22 old and valuable trees, mostly Chinese banyans, along Nathan Road and Haiphong Road would be preserved.
The impact on them would be "insubstantial" as the subway would mostly run underneath the southbound lane of Nathan Road, the report said.
Only one old tree close to the emergency exit at the northern end of the subway might need further attention and it would be cordoned off during construction. Building work within a buffer zone around the tree would be prohibited.
But 27 other trees had to be transplanted and three had to be felled.
Ken So Kwok-yin, a tree expert with the Conservancy Association, said the MTR Corp should closely monitor the trees during the construction, especially if there was loss of underground soil.
The rail operator said the subway would be built using cut-and-cover and tunnel mining methods, which it said would minimise noise and traffic disruption.
