The Mandarin Oriental Hotel's plan to turn the Excelsior Hotel site in Causeway Bay into an office building with an amendment has not been approved by the Town Planning Board, while Chinachem has won its first Urban Renewal Authority site in Sham Shui Po.
The board has not approved the plan because it said the group could not prove it would not affect transport in the area, local media reported.
The group claimed that Mandarin Oriental sent a request for a minor amendment of the existing approved General Building Plans to the Town Planning board earlier in the year. While the amendment wasn’t approved, it has no effect, and is not material in any way to the overall development project.
All building development in relation to the Excelsior site is on track and proceeding in accordance with the original government approved plans.
The landmark hotel has been demolished. The site area is about 45,985 square feet. With a 15-times plot ratio, it could be rebuilt as a commercial block of 34 levels. In the approved architectural drawing in 2018, the site can be built as one block of 30 levels.
Meanwhile, Wider Loyal, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chime Corporation, has won the URA's Tonkin Street/Fuk Wing Street project, with an area of about 1,070 square meters, for HK$912.8 million, which was the highest among the tenders received.
Chime Corporation is a subsidiary of Chinachem.
Upon completion, it will provide a maximum gross floor area of 104,087 sq ft. The price per sq ft is HK$8,770.
The market expects the revenue generated from this project to reach HK$230 million.
The URA had invited 36 developers to submit tenders for the project following an expression of interest exercise and received a total of 17 tenders.
Bids are expected today for a residential site at the junction of Soy Street and Shanghai Street in Mongkok. Analysts expects it is worth between HK$500 million and 540 million.
Elsewhere, CK Asset's (1113) application to build 903 units in Yau Tong has been approved while Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016) has applied to increase the plot ratio for a site in Tuen Mun by six times.
In the secondary market, a potential buyer of a 736-sq-ft unit at The Regent in Tai Po, developed by China Overseas Land and Investment (0688), scrapped the deal worth HK$10.54 million and forfeited a deposit of HK$530,000. Major new projects have seen the transaction of 16 units canceled so far this month. The developer will launch 131 units at The Regent for tender today.
The landmark hotel closed its doors at the end of March last year and has since been demolished. Sing Tao
