The government is facing renewed calls to drop its plan to hand the West Kowloon cultural project to one bidder now that the property market is looking up.
With developers showing strong bidding interest in government sites, academics and legislators said the government should reconsider the option of auctioning the residential and commercial lots in the proposed cultural district and use the capital to sustain cultural facility development.
Legislative Council members said they would press the government to rethink the proposal at the Legco planning, lands and works panel next Tuesday.
Non-affiliated legislator Albert Chan Wai-yip said: 'It is a very big project involving a lot of money and valuable land resources. We should do it properly. Now the market situation has changed. The outlook for the property market seems brighter.
'Developers are more eager to bid for land. I would question whether the single-contract approach is still the best option.'
Mr Chan said he would urge the government to rethink its approach at next week's panel meeting. Similar views were shared by legislator Albert Ho Chun-yan, vice-chairman of the Democratic Party, who said his party opposed the single-contract approach.
The project, with a giant canopy designed by Lord Foster, will be built on 40 hectares of reclaimed land on the southern tip of the West Kowloon reclamation.