Henderson Land Clinches Prime Harbourfront Plot

Henderson's blueprint presents lots of green spaces in Central

Developer Henderson Land Development is bullish on Hong Kong -- specifically Central district.

It had the winning bid of HK$50.8 billion (US$6.5 billion) for the New Central Harbourfront Commercial Site 3, beating out five other developers.

This plot of land was sold for HK$50.8 billion

Henderson will spend another HK$63 billion to develop the site which is the plot of land in front of the Hong Kong General Office and City Hall. The winning bid will feature three main buildings, the one closest to the waterfront will be multifunctional, while the other two will be office towers. Most of the land will have greenery in mind as well as public spaces. 

The old Star Ferry clock will be reconstructed in around the same spot as a visual landmark and showcase the city's maritime heritage.

According to Knight Frank, the Central Site 3 ranks as the second most expensive land transaction worldwide of all time, after a 861,120 sq ft site in Seoul's Gangnam district was bought by a Hyundai Motor-led consortium in 2014 for 10.5 trillion won (US$10 billion).

Market observers said the record price for the prime plot will boost the city's commercial property market and reinforce Hong Kong's position as a world class global financial hub.

Plowing that much money into Central means a big vote of confidence for the district even though the Lam administration has plans to develop the area near the border with the mainland.

Three buildings will be on the site, two are offices

"Although there are other large-scale developments such as Northern Metropolis and Lantau Tomorrow Vision in the pipeline, it would take 15 to 20 years for these projects to be fully completed and at least another decade for other areas to mature," said Martin Wong, head of research and consultancy of Greater China at Knight Frank.

"Central will remain the financial centre for Hong Kong in the foreseeable future," he added.

As we said earlier, Lam's vision of people sleeping better will have to wait at least 15 years... 

Central Post Office's Days are Numbered

The Post Office in Central will most probably be demolished

 

The General Post Office in Hong Kong's Central district may face the wrecking ball soon.

The government is putting out a tender for developers to use the land the post office is on as well as a giant patch of land north of it that could be worth HK$40 billion (US$5.12 billion) to HK$60 billion.

The previous GPO was knocked down in 1976

However, for many people, the GPO is a building worth saving, as they are tired and frustrated of seeing old buildings knocked down without much public discussion.

The GPO was built in 1976 to replace the old colonial-style post office that was also knocked down the same year to make way for the Central MTR station. At the time the new GPO had state-of-the-art mailing facilities, and heritage enthusiasts say the building has a unique post-war modernist design.

There have been repeated calls to save the post office over the past few years, but the government claims preservation would undermine the overall development potential of the site. The government has even said demolishing the building is a condition of the sale.

This is a bizarre reason when compared to Singapore's Fullerton Hotel, that was previously the city state's post office too. Admittedly the former Fullerton Building is much more grand than the GPO, but it was still repurposed to good use.

Meanwhile a few Hong Kong-based architects have proposed a number of ways to reuse the post office building, as it is only a small part of the total plot of land. 

Some architects suggest making it a cultural space

Others suggest keeping the building as a main connection point between the harbourfront areas and MTR station, the Star Ferry and other buildings, or to turn it into a cultural space.

Ivan Ho Man-yiu, an architect appointed to be the technical adviser for the land bid, was not keen on the ideas for conservation that have been proposed so far.

"It seems that nowadays when we think of preserving anything, we think of converting it to a museum," he said. "But with technology nowadays, actually many museums are going virtual... For physical museums, I am not sure what it will end up like in the future."

Ho's dismissive attitude isn't reflective of what many Hongkongers want. The government made a terrible mistake in how it handled the closure of Queen's Pier in 2007 and moved it hundreds of metres away. In fact the bid demands that the future developer will have to reconstruct the old Star Ferry Clock Tower close to its original location, to become the focal point of the new harbourfront and have a visual connection with the harbour.

The grassy land plot is included in the bid

It's a pathetic attempt to go back to right a wrong but build a completely new one, in other words construct a "new antique" much like the reconstructed traditional Chinese buildings in China.

Many people are expecting a monstrosity of a shopping mall there -- but why compete with the giant ifc mall right across the street? The easiest would be to build more offices, though the coronavirus pandemic has changed employees' and employers' minds about going back to the office and needing so much space.

It will be interesting to see what bids come in by the deadline this Friday June 18, and which development plan the government decides to choose in the end. Maybe no one's bids will pique the authorities' interest. 

One thing's for sure though -- the public's opinions don't count. Period.

Pay Attention on the Bus!

Commuters should get on the bus and pay attention to where they're going

I recently started taking the bus to work -- it takes about 10 minutes longer than if I took the MTR, but it's less stressful and I get to catch a bit more Vitamin D from the sun.

This morning soon after we left the bus stop at the General Post Office in Central, a woman got up and shrieked, "I need to get off the bus! I'm not going across the harbour!"

She was obviously so engrossed with her smartphone that she forgot to look up to see where she was.

We just pulled away from this stop when the woman shrieked

The bus driver calmly replied, "This is not a cross harbour tunnel bus. The next stop is City Hall."

Realizing she had completely overreacted, she sat down and quietly waited for the bus to arrive at the next stop, and then seemed hesitant to get off, perhaps dreading she had to walk much further.

But whose fault was it not to pay attention earlier?

Bus drivers must have so many stories of people forgetting to get off the bus -- everyday.

But today's incident was quite amusing.

Heritage Lost: General Post Office

The General Post Office was opened in 1976, but will be demolished soon

I have fond memories of the Central Post Office, when Queen's Pier used to be nearby to take the Star Ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui. When I first arrived in Hong Kong to work in the mid-1990s, I used to mail letters and large envelopes of newspaper clippings to my parents. The staff were so efficient and nice.

These days the place isn't as busy, people aren't queuing up to buy sheets of stamps, but mostly packages and the odd bulk mailing.

Notice the large marble slabs used as counter space

Last year there was a news story announcing the General Post Office in Central would be demolished to make way for A-grade office buildings. The post office would move its operations to an eight-storey building in Kowloon Bay, near the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal at a cost of HK$1.7 billion.

But there are hopes to protect some aspects of the building, though there haven't been any updates on this or when exactly the building will be knocked down.

I told my visiting architect cousin about this and so he wanted to check out the building. He was amazed by the beautiful marble slabs on the counters and wondered if they would be salvaged before the demolition.

We also saw a wooden arch that was probably saved from the previous General Post Office. It reads: "As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country". Below it is a black plaque that says the current building was opened on August 11, 1976 by Sir Murray Maclehose, then Governor of Hong Kong.

"As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country"

When we wandered in before 1pm on a Saturday, the counters were almost all empty, with staff chatting among each other. What will happen to all the people who have GPO boxes in Central? 

It's a shame the building has to be torn down -- it's a major landmark in Central and is an important walkway to get to IFC and the ferry piers, or vice versa to City Hall and office buildings like Jardine House.

But with land prices being so high, the government seems to think it needs to make more money (how much more does it need?) by selling prime land.

If anyone needs an education about heritage, it's the government. It has no understanding or appreciation of the importance of preserving old buildings, and then it wonders why it has no more heritage to promote to tourists...

Why Knock a Good Thing?

The General Post Office in Central is slated for demolition

The Hong Kong government doesn't think the city has enough office towers and malls so it is planning to demolish the General Post Office in Central. The post office and its contents would be moved to a new building in Kowloon Bay that cost taxpayers HK$1.6 billion (US$204 million).

Why do we need to move the General Post Office when we need one in the central business district? The post office has been an essential service not only Monday to Friday but even on Sundays for domestic helpers who are only free that day to mail packages back home.

This was the original General Post Office

And also why do we need another shopping mall? We already have IFC and Landmark in Central, and Pacific Place nearby. Surely those malls don't want competition either.

Environmentalists are using the argument that if you must move the post office, fine, but leave the building there. Roy Tam Hoi-pong of the activist group Green Sense says knocking down the building would create a lot of construction waste which would clog up landfills.

Green Sense has estimated it would produce more than 12,000 cubic metres of waste, the equivalent of five standard-sized swimming pools.

The five-storey Central Post Office was erected in 1976 to replace Hongkong Post's previous Edwardian-era headquarters at the corner of Des Voeux Road Central and Pedder Street.

The site on which the post office is located is known as Site 3, and it is part of a HK$12 billion plan for eight key sites on the Central harbourfront. There are plans for upmarket (ie expensive) office space, a large pedestrian deck and a mix of hotels and shops. Town planners had approved this for the site in September 2016.

Keeping the post office would be of cultural value to the city

Kitty Law Ngar-ning, co-convenor of the Central and Western Concern Group believes the building should be saved for its heritage value.

"The General Post Office has served Hongkongers for more than 40 years and... its symbolism is embodied by all the commerce, trade, cultural and societal exchanges that took place there," she said. "It is an important piece of architecture in our collective memory."

She suggested it be used as an exhibition space or a postal-themed museum. But it could have other uses as well. Why can't part of it remain a post office and the other parts some office space? Looking at how the Murray Building was recently refurbished into a hotel is interesting and useful. Does the government really have no creative ideas?

The government's Commerce and Economic Development Bureau claimed there wasn't enough grade A office space in the area. If that's so why are companies moving their offices away from the central business district? They can't afford the rents anymore!

The impending plan makes no sense, and hopefully lawmakers will question it. If not, we'll be left with another gaping hole in the Central harbourfront area and wondering why Hong Kong doesn't preserve its history and culture...