The race by developers to build skyscrapers in Kowloon appears to have slowed with a lack of new applications for super-high-rise construction. Chief Building Surveyor Jeffrey Dobbing said the Buildings Department did not receive any submissions to build mega towers in Kowloon following the approval for Wharf (Holdings) to build the Gateway III in Tsim Sha Tsui. He said building super-high-rise towers was a complicated business. Developers might not want to build skyscrapers as a taller building would result in a smaller floor plate, reducing the building's efficiency, he said. It depended on how effective the building would be after the height was raised, he said. With the airport's relocation to Chek Lap Kok and the subsequent lift of height restrictions, developers had raced to build skyscrapers in Kowloon. The latest approval by the Buildings Department was a 100-storey commercial redevelopment by Wharf in Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. The group proposed knocking down seven old properties to make way for a 405-metre tower comprising 3.02 million square feet of offices, shops, hotels and serviced apartments. Wharf also obtained government approval to build a 74-storey residential tower, the tallest in the local housing sector, in the second-phase development at Kowloon Station. The Mass Transit Railway Corporation planned to build a 102-storey office-hotel tower, the tallest in Hong Kong after completion, at the airport railway's Kowloon Station. When completed, it will overtake the 452-metre Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and the 443-metre Sears Tower in Chicago. Hong Kong's tallest building now is the 374-metre, 78-storey Central Plaza in Wan Chai, partly owned by Sun Hung Kai Properties. Mr Dobbing said the applications the department had received recently were mainly for buildings of 25 storeys. He believed typical redevelopment would be seen in Yau Ma Tei and Mongkok. Mr Dobbing said another potential sizeable project would be the building planned by the Land Development Corporation (LDC) in Hanoi Road, Tsim Sha Tsui. But, he said, the LDC had yet to submit a formal application for the development.
