Slow growth at Kai Tak 'hurting cruise terminal'
The slow pace of developments surrounding the site of the proposed cruise terminal at Kai Tak is one reason the project has appeared unattractive to developers in the past three years, estate agents and planners have said.
They warned that the re-tender of the project, announced yesterday, could still be unsuccessful if the pace of the peripheral developments did not catch up.
The terminal, on the southern tip of the former Kai Tak airport runway, was named one of the 10 major infrastructure projects in the chief executive's policy address last October.
The government had earlier rejected six submissions received after it invited expressions of interest from developers in 2005.
It was disclosed yesterday that the official tender, first opened in November, had failed because the two developers that bid for the project wanted to generate revenue more quickly in ways that did not conform fully with the tender requirements.
The project would be a liability to the developer for the first five to 10 years if it was to be completed by the original target date of 2012, said Alnwick Chan Chi-hing, executive director of property consultancy Knight Frank, who has studied cruise terminal developments. This was because the surrounding areas would still be under development.
'There would be little population and no MTR station to make the commercial facilities of the terminal more financially viable,' Mr Chan said, and the facilities could not be sustained by cruise passengers.
He said the government should fast-track site sales and developments at Kai Tak to make the re-tender more promising, apart from funding the development costs.
'The terminal should not be implemented as an individual property project,' he said.
Surveyor Charles Chan Chiu-kwok said the commercial area of 50,000 square metres granted under the tender would not be sufficient to cover the huge development costs, which include a landscaped deck of more than 20,000 square metres.
'The commercial areas would include a hotel, shopping mall and office building,' he said. 'But the area is less than a quarter that of the IFC.'
Also, expected land value of the terminal was low because of the lack of surrounding development.
Town Planning Board vice-chairman Gregory Wong Chak-yan urged the government to speed up the infrastructure at Kai Tak.
'The cruise passengers would have to walk through empty sites and past the smelly nullah to get into the city centre,' he said.
All aboard
How the tender requirements for the cruise terminal could change
Government funding
2007 tender requirements: None
Proposed requirements for re-tender: At least HK$1.8 billion to HK$2 billion provided for site formation works and basic government facilities
Latest date for commissioning of first berth
2007 tender requirements: February 29, 2012
Proposed requirements for re-tender: Third quarter, 2013
Mandatory requirements
2007 tender requirements: Members of project teams should have worked for cruise terminals at ports serving annual minimum of 200,000 passengers in 2004, 2005 and 2006
Proposed requirements for re-tender: Members of project teams should have worked for cruise terminals at ports serving annual minimum of 300,000 passengers for any 36 months from 2003 to 2008
Car park
2007 tender requirements: Location to be proposed by tenderers
Proposed requirements for re-tender: Car park or related facilities to be located in basement of cruise terminal building
Night lighting plan
2007 tender requirements: None
Proposed requirements for re-tender: Tenderers required to submit plan
Participation in 'Symphony of Lights'
2007 tender requirements: System for broadcasting music required
Proposed requirements for re-tender: Sound and lighting systems required
SOURCE: LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL PAPER
