School could raise HK$585m from site sale

A leading special school is planning to sell its prime site for luxury housing development to bankroll construction of a state-of-the-art education centre for the blind.

The Ebenezer School and Home for the Visually Impaired has struck a deal with Hang Lung Properties to buy its 6,500 sq metre site in Pok Fu Lam - worth an estimated HK$585 million. Estate agents said the flats Hang Lung builds on the site could sell for more than HK$3 billion.

The school wants to use the proceeds from selling the site to build a bigger, better-equipped centre in Kowloon or the New Territories that would be designed to meet the increasingly complex needs of blind and partially sighted people.

A set of three alternative plans for luxury apartment buildings on the Pokfulam Road site was lodged with the Planning Department last month, with an application to rezone it for residential use. The plans include two or three towers 20 to 30 storeys high, with 96 to 120 apartments.

School leaders have also applied to the Education Bureau for a grant of surplus land for the new centre, which would house its six existing services plus 12 new ones, including day centres, holiday camps and guide dogs for the blind.

Simon Leung Man-on, principal and chief executive, said: 'The blind students do not benefit from the exquisite view from our site and the teachers are too busy to look at it anyway. But it would provide a lovely site for some good quality homes. That would be a great trade-off for a major expansion of services for blind and visually impaired people in Hong Kong.