Property giants bid for airport railway project
FIVE bidders comprising the territory's major developers yesterday presented tenders for the first package of the property development above Mass Transit Railway Corp's (MTRC) planned airport railway station in Kowloon.
The tenderers include a revised team led by Sino Land, and a consortium formed by Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hang Lung Development, New World Development, Swire Properties and Henderson Land Development.
A Sino Land spokesman said yesterday the copmany had invited two new partners, Great Eagle Holdings and Paliburg Development, into its consortium while Singapore based DBS Land had withdrawn.
Other Sino Land partners include Manhattan Garments (International) and Nan Fung Development.
Sino Land and Great Eagle together hold a 50 per cent stake in the partnership, with the balance going to the others.
The first development package, worth about $8 billion, will provide residential space of about 1.59 million square feet, or not more than 1,776 apartments.
Great Eagle's line-up with Sino Land marks its first venture into residential development in five years.
Its last residential development was Birchwood Place at Macdonnell Road.
Since then, the company has concentrated on investment and office projects, most notably the Citibank Plaza in Central. Other bidders include Citic Pacific and a consortium led by HKR International.
HKR did not identify its partners but is said to have joined forces with Lai Sun Development and Hong Kong China to bid for the project.
Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa are believed to have entered a joint bid, although it is not known if they formed part of the Citic Pacific consortium.
Wheelock is tipped to be another bidder, but the company has refused to comment on the issue.
MTRC said the tender award for the first development package would be announced in the first quarter of 1996.
The entire Kowloon Station development, in the West Kowloon Reclamation area, is to be transformed into a commercial, residential and hotel complex upon completion in 2008.
A gross floor area of 11.73 million sq ft will be built at an investment cost of $71 billion.
At its heart will be an 88-storey office and hotel tower which is anticipated to become Hong Kong's tallest building, 10 floors higher than the reigning champion Central Plaza in Wan Chai.
Meanwhile, the Lands Department is inviting tenders by Letter B or by cash for three lots of land in Fanling and Ma On Shan.
They include a 86,112 sq ft site and a 227,766 sq ft site in Area 47A in Fanling, both for commercial-residential use, and a 277,980 sq ft residential site in Area 108 in Ma On Shan.
Tenders submission will close on January 12.
