Greater Bay Area residents will soon be able to buy wealth management, beauty and medical services from Hong Kong’s 11 Skies complex
- Airport Authority awarded the contract for development and management of the project to New World Development in 2018
- Anchor tenants include Bank of China (Hong Kong), Citibank, Standard Chartered, FTLife Insurance and Trinity Health Enterprise
Greater Bay Area (GBA) residents will soon be able to receive medical services and buy wealth management products at a commercial complex named 11 Skies near Hong Kong International Airport, without travelling to the city centre once the border with mainland China reopens.
11 Skies is a HK$20 billion (US$2.55 billion), 3.8 million sq ft office-retail-entertainment project, comprising three, seven-storey grade A office towers and separate retail and entertainment facilities. The office towers will open in July, and the other facilities in 2024 and 2025. The complex will mainly target GBA residents who live within a one-and-a-half hour drive, according to the developer, New World Development.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on construction,” said Larry Leung, vice-president for operations at K11 Concepts, a unit of New World Group that is responsible for project management. “But we still manage to complete the work [for the office site] and keep the budget in check.”
The city’s Airport Authority awarded the contract for development and management of the project to the group’s property arm New World Development in 2018.
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Nearly 20 companies from the finance, wealth management, beauty and medical services sectors will open offices at the three office towers, which have a total gross floor area of 570,000 sq ft, said Leung. “About half of the gross floor area [for offices] has been pre-leased,” said Leung, without disclosing the rents payable.
Aside flying to the airport to visit 11 Skies, the complex is also close to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, which could pull in visitors who drive from the Greater Bay Area, which includes the cities of Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Zhongshan, Dongguan, Huizhou, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing.
Five anchor tenants including Bank of China (Hong Kong), Citibank, Standard Chartered, FTLife Insurance and Trinity Health Enterprise have taken up space at the business complex.
Standard Chartered said it plans to set up a new banking centre in 11 Skies to meet the demand for cross-boundary banking and investment services from GBA residents.
“While the GBA market continues to develop rapidly, we believe mainland investors will have a higher demand for cross-boundary investment services, spurring growth of wealth management services in Hong Kong,” said Terruce Wang, head of Greater China segment for consumer, private and business banking at Standard Chartered Hong Kong, in a reply to questions from the Post.
“As 11 Skies is situated at one of the most accessible locations for GBA residents, we plan to cater to their needs as a physical servicing spot for banking and wealth management services, while they visit 11 Skies for entertainment and shopping in one-go,” said Wang.
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Each of the three office towers will offer specific services, one for finance and wealth management, one for wellness and medical services, and the third will provide space for companies in the GBA to set up offices in Hong Kong.
The planned opening of the complex comes against the backdrop of a sharp plunge in mainland tourist arrivals to Hong Kong from 51 million in 2018 to 65,721 in 2021 amid a border closure since 2020 to contain the pandemic.
“The border with the mainland will open one day even though the market is clouded by short-term concerns,” said Helen Mak, senior director and head of retail services at real estate consultancy Knight Frank. She added that New World would be taking a long-term view of the project as the airport remains an international hub.
“Hong Kong’s financial and medical services are considered some of the most established in the Asia-Pacific region,” said Oliver Tong, head of retail at JLL in Hong Kong. “It can attract money flow from the mainland seeking to buy insurance, stocks and wealth investment products in Hong Kong.”
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Meanwhile, the retail part of 11 Skies, comprising 800 shops and 120 restaurants, is set to open in 2024. The facilities will include the first KidZania theme park in Greater China, the city’s first flying theatre, Timeless Flight Hong Kong, and SkyTrack, an indoor and outdoor karting track.
Jll’s Tong said that there has not been such a “retailtainment” – retail marketing as entertainment – complex in Hong Kong with such a “wow” factor for tourists and locals in the past 10 years.
