With government's office rental bill HK$750m, why demolish west wing?
Why demolish office block when it could house 40pc of government staff who work in rented commercial space, conservationists ask
Redeveloping the west wing of the former government headquarters for commercial use is unjustified when officials are spending more than HK$750 million a year to rent private office space for their use, according to conservationists.
They argue that moving some of these staff to the west wing from the private offices they continue to occupy despite the opening of the new HK$5.5 billion government headquarters would free up more commercial space for business. Officials plan an office tower on the west wing site to alleviate the shortage of commercial space.
The issue was highlighted in a public consultation that closed yesterday on the proposal to replace the west wing.
According to information from the Government Property Agency, (GPA) released to the South China Morning Post, the government rented about 56,000 square metres of office space in several business districts last year at a cost of HK$766 million.
The west wing has a gross floor area of 22,376 square metres, and if preserved could accommodate 40 per cent of the officials now using this rented space.
Most of the rented space - 21,800 square metres - is in Wan Chai, with 19 departments paying HK$10 million a month on rent in 18 private buildings.