West Kowloon hub details plan to build 1,995 flats

Eunice Lam

The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority is expected to submit a proposal to build no more than 1,995 residential flats on its 20,000 square meters of land to the Town Planning Board in the first quarter of this year.

But Election Committee lawmaker Ma Fung-kwok told The Standard that selling the land for residential use - apart from only helping the district's cash-flow problems in the short-term - would be "selling the district's future."

The government permitted the sale of land parcels for residential developments in the cash-strapped cultural hub last July to help it avoid drain its net HK$5.2 billion cash balance, which has been estimated to run out by March this year.

In a document submitted to the Yau Tsim Mong District Council housing and development planning committee on Monday, the WKCDA said it plans to build seven residential buildings on 20,000 sq m of land south of Austin Road West.

No more than 1,995 flats will be built on a maximum floor area of 108,500 sq m, while the buildings will also comprise ancillary facilities such as retail, catering, and leisure, as well as a three-story basement, according to the document.

The document also proposed building two sets of pedestrian passages and entrances between the West Kowloon Cultural District and major transportation hubs within the vicinity. "This will facilitate citizens and visitors to use public transport to go to and from West Kowloon [Cultural District] and divert the impact on the traffic in the vicinity," it said.

The WKCDA said it had consulted the Harbourfront Commission's Task Force on Harbourfront Developments in Kowloon, Tsuen Wan and Kwai Tsing regarding the proposal on November 29 last year, with task force members "generally supporting" it.

"After consulting the Yau Tsim Mong District Council's housing and development planning committee, the authority plans to submit an application of approval to the Town Planning Board in the first quarter of 2025," the document wrote.

Ma, meanwhile, said although the proposal would be helpful in easing the district's current financial burden, it was still unknown whether it could enable the WKCDA to run the hub sustainably in the long term.

"It will depend on how the authority operates the district in the future ... when the authority can no longer receive any more revenue from land," Ma said. "I would say [the WKCDA is] selling the district's future."

He also said it was not the first time the government financially supported the district, which he described as a "HK$100 billion development project."

Apart from the HK$21.6 billion given to the district, Ma said the government helped it build the basement network and a central air-conditioning system, for which construction work cost some HK$20 billion.

"With the government having been investing more and more into the district, we need to see how the authority would run the district in the future," he said.

In a response to The Standard's inquiries, a West Kowloon Cultural District spokesman said it is just a "regular procedure" for any development project in Hong Kong to go through the district council to garner opinions before submitting the proposal to the Town Planning Board.

In 2016, the government set out a "build-operate-transfer" restriction, in which residential development projects financed and constructed by private developers will be reverted to the WKCDA once the contract expires.

To ease the hub's financial pressure, the government in July last year lifted the restriction and allowed the WKCDA to keep all proceeds it receives from private developers.

eunice.lam@singtaonewscorp.com