Hong Kong Mariners’ Club to undergo redevelopment, includes commercial hotel
Plans to redevelop the club have been discussed for decades
The Mariners’ Club has reinstated plans to renovate its near half-century-old building which have been put on and off the table for nearly 30 years, as declining revenue and a low number of seafarers using the club put pressure on its financial sustainability.
The Sailors Home and Missions to Seamen, which operates the 12-storey building, is looking to partner with a developer to redevelop the site into a composite building consisting of a new Mariners’ Club on the lower levels and a commercial hotel on the upper floors.
The number of Hong Kong sailors working on long-haul vessels has dropped from a peak of more than 60,000 to fewer than 400, making the need for such a large facility unnecessary, according to the mission. It said having a commercial hotel and shrinking the size of the club was to “ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the club”.
“We have been experiencing for some time a significant [financial] deficit and when we looked at the possibility of keeping the building and renovating it ... one would now expect we do not have the funds to do so,” its honorary secretary Colin Shaftesley said. “[Without this redevelopment plan] we would probably either have to hand the building back to the government or close down a significant part of the building.”
The building was constructed in May 30, 1967, and officially opened by colonial governor Sir David Trench.
